I could tell within minutes of meeting Amy that she was the childminder for us! Calm and attentive with the children and full of feedback for us on what had happened in Finley's day.

We loved that everyday Amy filled out a little report on his play activity and learning experiences including photos and special observations. If there wasn't time to catch up I always knew I'd have this to look forward to later so that I didn't feel like I was missing out on my son's development. With our comments too it also now serves as a wonderful memory of 18 months of his life before we moved out of Bristol.

We have pictures of him painting enormous pictures along the garden shed, playing trucks in the sand box and enjoying treasure trove after treasure trove of baskets from her extremely well stocked toy collection, mostly made of wood or other good quality natural products.

We took inspiration too from Amy's amazing lunches - lamb tangine and rice, rosemary & lemon chicken with pesto pasta and all the usual favourites!

Over all though while the setting had everything we wanted, it was Amy herself that made it the caring, nurturing environment that a small child needs. I felt that she really understood my son and could see the tiny changes in him that only a parent would really notice. Best of all though was seeing Finley's reaction when I said we were going to Amy's house - jumping up and down in excitement and running to her front door everytime we arrived!