Nanny in Orleans, Ontario

Please know I am the type of person to take very good care of your little ones. I take the job extremely seriously and would probably be more vigilant than most parents. Thank you for your time. Catherine Fields There are seven children in my family. I was number three on the totem pole, so there are four younger than me. when I was 16, my sister was eight, my brother was 3, another sister 2 and the last sister 1. Needless to say my mother did not have a lot of time on her hands and I helped out all the time. This is where my primary care of children began. Of course as a teen I also had "babysitting" jobs. I didn't get back in to child care until 1993. I had a very good job at an Ottawa roofing company, but after five years there I was desperately unhappy. I decided life was too short to be so miserable and left the corporate world behind. A few months later I was looking for something more meaningful to do. I had a little job working part time at a video store in Blackburn Hamlet and that was fun, but it was pretty mundane. I actually fell in to a job looking after a ladies three children entirely by accident. They were 4, 6 and 8. I was with them for a couple of years (part time) and also looked after two little girls in Orleans. They were 5 and 9. After those children I got a position with three children. They were 2, 4 and 5 at the time. I was with them from 1997-200.... At that time they were all in school full time so there was no more need for my services. I also relocated from Ottawa at that time. It has only been the last few months that I've been thinking about getting back into childcare. I have a four year old niece and six year old nephew and I've been having so much fun with them that it's made me miss the "old days". I was never really a conventional child care provider. I've always been able to communicate very well with children and have never had a discipline problem. I've always explained to them that there were many times they were going to ask me things and that almost every time I was going to say yes, but on those occasions when I said no, it was for a reason. If they were interested I explained why, but it got to the point where they simply understood that I had a reason and that was good enough for them. I tend to emphasize outdoor as opposed to indoor. The 2 year old had been born at 26 weeks and was developmentally delayed, but that never stopped me from helping him with his fine motor skills and speech therapy. I made a game out of everything. As the 4 and 6 year old were in school most of the time, I had a lot of time with this little fella and we spend all our time playing outside whenever we could. We would go for walk in the rain and then have a "worm walk" after the rain to count the number of worms we saw. Of course I would make like we had discovered gold every time we saw one. :-) It was a lot of fun. We always used our imaginations, I was never into store bought things. In the fall we took a winter flying saucer and covered it with beautiful leaves to make a tree. We made forts in the winter (sometimes double deckers) and tents inside the house when it rained outside. One year St Patricks Day happened to be a PD day and I made pretend swords from cardboard and tin foil and we went to a park near the airport hoping to catch and slay the snakes before they tried to hop a plane back to Ireland. It was amazing to see their imaginations at work that day!!!! A great time was had by all. As I've already said, I never had a discipline problem with children. I believe in being absolutely fair and above all listening to what the child has to say. I believe every thing one says to a child has an impact on their self awareness and contributes to the shaping of the kind of person they are going to be. I stress tolerance of others above all else and try to give the children the tools and control to solve their own issues with each other. I ask their opinions on things and listen to what they tell me. I'm not big on television. I'd rather read books or teach them about nature when we are playing outside. I encourage them to "discover". I believe every day is an adventure - not just for the children but for adults as well. It all depends on how you look at it. I am open to all questions from any parent.