Julie is currently our nanny for our almost 2.5 year old daughter, and has been working with us since our daughter was 17 months old. She's been such an amazing find, we just love her! It was important to us to find a nanny that would support our daughter's bravery and independence, while still helping her feel safe and secure. Julie uses a Montessori approach that prioritizes child-led interactions, which has been perfect for our daughter. She's given our daughter an amazing mix of freedom for exploration alongside boundaries, teaching her how to be safe as she explores in a perfectly age-appropriate way. She spends most of the day outside, going to parks or going on walks, making sure our daughter gets plenty of time in the fresh air and has plenty of space to get lots of movement. She's also taught our daughter useful life skills, like how to tidy after herself, how to put on a jacket by herself, and how to help with meals (getting her own plates and cutlery, choosing what she wants to eat, helping to prepare food). Julie has also been speaking in French to our daughter, helping her to develop her understanding of French, which has been a lot of fun to watch develop!
I think one of the greatest things about Julie is that she comes alongside the family, hears what your priorities and needs are, and then works with you to help provide that for your child. As an example, we've always taken an approach to sleep that is very supportive, sometimes involving staying in our daughter's room until she's asleep. Julie had no problem with this and was happy to meet this need, helping our daughter feel safe and supported for naps. She's done the same with meal times - it was important to me that our daughter learned that food is neutral, not shameful, and didn't have any strict limitations around what/how much she could eat. We wanted to foster an environment where food is another area to explore and where she knows that our job (as parents/childcare providers) is to choose what and how much to serve, and her job is to choose how much to eat. Julie was happy to partner with us on this for mealtimes and has done a great job supporting our daughter's food exploration in a neutral way.
Julie has been such a wonderful addition over the last year or so, we honestly can't say enough good things about her! We're expecting our second soon and I have no hesitation around Julie looking after this new baby, too. I trust her experience, competence, and safety with children of all ages completely.