Nanny in Montreal, Quebec

Hello! My name is Cas and I am an artist residing in Montreal. I grew up in New England before I came to McGill University for school, whence I graduated with an Honours degree in East Asian Studies (primarily Chinese language and literature) and a minor in English Lit. My greatest loves are music and reading. My experience growing up in a large family with many branches gave me near-constant exposure to kids of all shapes and sizes, and foremost taught me that the two things a kid looks for in a grownup companion are a sense of humor and a predilection for answering questions. Having honed these particular skills over the years, I found that my professional experience with kids definitely bears this out, which would explain why I\'ve repeatedly found myself drawn to education. The summers I spent in Taiwan teaching young students English especially drove home to me the importance of a nurturing and caring attitude for developing confidence and independence, and my experiences working with children at summer camps both at home and abroad gave me the unique insight that a great way to build trust with a kid is to show patience and enthusiasm for their endless questions, especially the whimsical ones! I\'ve also worked hard not to take myself too seriously - there are plenty of things about me that children find funny without my necessarily intending them to, for example my exceptional height, lankiness, silly hair, and so on, and I\'ve learned to embrace them in the interest of establishing mutual honesty. Plus my years spent in front of the TV have paid off in the form of a nearly inexhaustible repertoire of impressions and cartoonish voices that are always good for brightening the mood. The core of my philosophy with kids is this: that kids naturally want to learn things and to have fun, and that my role as a caregiver is to show them how the two can go together seamlessly! Professionally, most of my work with children so far has been educational - working at schools, summer camps, afterschool programs, and the like. Though I was often in charge of leading activities and performing teaching-related duties (homework help, activity planning/facilitating, etc), my specialty according to my coworkers was my endless patience for indulging the child\\\'s curiosity - talking to kids is always the best part of working with them, and I am always ready and willing to answer whatever question they come up with, or at least try to answer it! Most of my experience is with larger (10 ) groups of kids aged 10-12, but I\\\'ve have plenty of opportunities to work with kids as young as 4 and as old at 17. Unofficially, I grew up in a big family with a baby brother, so I\\\'m well acquainted with the tribulations of bottles, naptime, and changing diapers as well. I don\\\'t usually include the few bucks my mom would throw my way for watching the baby when she had to go out as a part of my professional experience, but it did teach me a great deal about how to love working with tiny children.