Michelle has been childminding my son Bodhi since September 2018 when he was 14 months old. In this time Michelle has built a brilliant relationship with Bodhi and has helped improve his confidence. Before this Bodhi was very clingy to me and his dad and would sob if he was left with others however he has been happy to be left with Michelle from the beginning and he’s now more confident with family and friends in general. Being with Michelle has also helped Bodhi interact more effectively with other children, previously he was nervous and didn’t interact or play with other children where as now he loves being around other children and quite happily plays with them rather than alongside them.

Michelle is very patient with Bodhi while encouraging him to try more foods as he typically likes to eat the same foods. During this time Bodhi has rejected a lot of foods in the first instance but Michelle has persisted, and he now eats a wide variety of foods.

Whilst Bodhi is in Michelle’s care they do a variety of indoor and outdoor activities, they go to nature reserves, parks, woodland areas, local museums and on days where the weather is to hot or to cold they do indoor activities such as yoga, reading books, bingo, drawing etc.

Michelle is very good at keeping me updated with Bodhi progress, she updates the Baby Days app daily with his toilet movements and sleep times as well as photo’s and learning and development, new skills etc. Each day when I collect Bodhi she lets me know what they’ve been up to, new words Bodhi has said, how he has eaten and his overall mood.

I have been very lucky to find Michelle as she has such a great bond with Bodhi, he genuinely looks forward to being dropped off in the mornings.

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• Communication