Ryan Dix

About Me

Our names are Ryan and Anja Dix and we have been married for 23 years! We come from South Africa and have been in the UK for almost two decades. Anja is Afrikaans and I am English, therefore our children are being raised bilingual. We are both Ofsted registered Childminders with a Good rating, as at September 2019, with many references from all the parents we’ve minded for in the past. We have all the necessary qualifications and more, which can be seen when you come to meet us.
We are blessed to have two amazing children, Amy and Matthew, who just adore the little ones and tend to bond really well with them.
Our Business is called Home Grown Little Acorn Childminding, because we want to give the children, we mind a home away from home. We believe that we are helping to raise little Acorns to become mighty Oaks one day. When our daughter was born, Anja decided not to return to her management position and took time out to be home with Amy. Once we had Matthew a friend of ours with a similarly aged baby was upset about sending her baby to strangers in a nursery and Anja offered to register as a childminder and to mind her baby. This led her to starting her Childminding business in March 2010 and she's never looked back! Her goal is to give parents peace of mind, knowing that their child will be loved like they deserve to be, valued for being an individual and not treated like a number. Children are allowed to have fun and explore, while learning new things in a safe and loving environment.
As your child will be cared for like they were part of the family, we think it’s of utmost importance that you get a feel for our family.
Anja and I met when she was in her final year at school and we celebrated our 23rd anniversary the other day.

After working more from home and seeing the impact that Anja had on the children that she was minding, I decided to join her from my job in Treasury, where I had daily deadlines but never the satisfaction of knowing that I made a difference in an individual/ family's lives.

We believe that children should be allowed to be children, get messy and have fun! Being a childminder is something we are very passionate about and we give the children exceptional care. We attend local playgroups so that the children get to experience a larger group of children and adults to socialise with, we also try to break things up a bit and will go to the park/ library/ animal farm, learning about our environment and the world around us. We use every opportunity to teach children through everyday activities in an informal way.

We are a Christian family and attend Vineyard61 West Side and our faith is important to us. Working together with you to raise your child with your beliefs and values is really vital to us and we look forward to helping you give your child the best they deserve.

We are very fortunate to live in a lovely 4 bedroom home with a lovely mature and big garden on Sutherland Grove, SW18. The garden has a playhouse, trampoline, climbing frame, ride on toys, water table (or anything messy), toy kitchen and plenty more. Our daily care involves taking photos of whatever we are doing and sending it to you on a designated Whatsapp group, created for your child. It’s one thing reading in the daily diary about what your poppet has done, but to see them full of paint and smiles is quiet another! We have two beautiful and friendly cats, who are great with the kids and are very patient with them.
We follow all the best practice recommendations and we write daily diaries, cook meals from scratch, have a schedule, do monthly observations, termly planning, fire drills, daily risk assessments and more. To make your life easier we have made an all-inclusive rate, this will include nappies, wipes, food and anything else we may need on a day to day basis. Thank you for taking the time to read this and we look forward to meeting you and your little cherub soon.