Nanny in Toronto, Ontario

Melinda looked after my baby from from 1.5yrs to 2.5yrs as he transitioned to Daycare. I completely trusted her with my little guy. She is gentle and very even tempered. Her love of music and art was appreciated by him and us. I highly recommend Melinda as a caregiver.

Melinda Suarez is a gentle and loving person. She held a nurturing and fun space for my daughter when she took care of her. She would encourage my daughter to express herself through "play" and "music" which I feel helped my baby/toddler to be resourceful. Melinda was also very respectful of our parenting philosophy and worked accordingly. She would approach "discipline" and "freedom to be and do" with my girl the way I asked her (I know so because she was always attentive to my ways and would ask me directly). I would without hesitation highly recommend Melinda. PS. Melinda is fluent in Spanish, which was a "plus" for us since I am Spanish native speaker and I wanted someone to help me reinforce Spanish language at home.

Melinda has worked in various capacities as a child care provider for our family of five for about three years. She has done evening babysitting, picking up kids from school and taking them home or to activities, and, most importantly, some tutoring with one of our kids who has a learning disability (see below). She is a thoughtful, engaged, and responsible caregiver who listens carefully to kids and parents and wants to understand what makes everybody tick. She is the favourite babysitter of our kids, in part because she is creative and engaged -- she starts fun projects with them and remains attentive -- and also because they know that she cares about them. We had had some tutoring for one of our kids before, and they were successful in helping him improve his reading and writing. But he was bored with the charts, rote work, and so on, and was resisting traditional tutoring methods. Since we knew Melinda as a "regular" babysitter -- and she is the kids' favourite -- and since she is studying expressive arts, having her take over the tutoring was logical. This move has been great for all of us, as her approach to creative writing, arts, and music has helped my son fill the gap between what's in his mind and what he's able to write, read, and express.