Empathetic, thoughtful, and fun nonbinary woman experienced caring for babies and children including high needs, physical/mental disability.
Hi parents and primary caregivers, I'm Lena (Magdalena Kozlowski) and I would love to provide warm, safe, fun care to your child or children in keeping with your own ideals of parenting. I am flexible in my approach, work well within routines, and am also capable of spontaneity and problem solving. My experience in child care spans from wheelchair using children and those with mental and learning disabilities, to groups of up to five children ranging in age from 5 months to 12 years. I have ... moreHi parents and primary caregivers, I'm Lena (Magdalena Kozlowski) and I would love to provide warm, safe, fun care to your child or children in keeping with your own ideals of parenting. I am flexible in my approach, work well within routines, and am also capable of spontaneity and problem solving. My experience in child care spans from wheelchair using children and those with mental and learning disabilities, to groups of up to five children ranging in age from 5 months to 12 years. I have a reference from the foster mother of a girl I have cared for in the past regarding this, feel free to request I send it through to you. (Unfortunately this document was lost with a computer crash) I am a good cook specializing in healthy vegetarian and vegan food, and can also cook with animal proteins if specifically desired. Entertaining children with games that allow them to explore their ideas and develop skills is something I am passionate about, and as a university student with a background in visual arts, performing arts, and literature, I am always excited to get kids drawing, painting, singing and all manner of creative pursuits. I also have experience hand drawing dot-to-dot lettering and drawing of vocabulary words for the prep-to-grade 2 age group and drawing 'requests' to be coloured in by the younger ones.
I myself have chronic health conditions which cause chronic pain and chronic fatigue, which is the unfortunate reason for my low availability. I am actually very flexible with when I can work, though I can only really do maximum 4-5 hour periods of care work to maintain effective brain function and avoid complications with my health from over exertion. My disability status led me to work in disability advocacy and peer support at my university though, and has given me a compassionate and intellectual understanding of the needs of a range of disabled people and neurodiverse people in particular, so I would be 100% comfortable working with children who are autistic or ADHD, or with chronic illness or physical disability etc.
Note: I cannot provide illness care for children with the flu or transmissible illnesses due to my low immune function.
Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions, requests or to arrange a meeting to see whether I would fit with your family as parents helper and daytime carer.
Note: Fees are negotiated according to various factors including weekday/weekend, daytime/evening, number of children, age range of children, one-off/regular booking, last minute
Degree, BA in Creative writing and musical theatre from Monash University
English
Citizen
What parents love about me
I am highly respectful of individual families values, styles, and differences; I am very empathetic and caring, I am good at enforcing bed-time without tears, I am comfortable with nanny-cams as I understand your need to be assured your child is in safe hands especially with pre-speech infants, I am polite and remind children that although there's plenty of time for fun I am also an authority while you are away and they need to respect your rules with me too. My understanding of neurodiverse and disabled experience is certainly an asset to families with any disabled or neurodivergent members.
What kids love about me
Singing, dancing, cooking with me, drawing and writing together, patience in answering questions and researching if I don't know the answers, I have time for them as in my time with them they are my 100% focus. My focus on autonomy and understanding the perspective of the child, guiding them to understand their feelings, and taking time to explain if something has to be done differently than they want it to.
They also respond well to my child-led approach and focus on building a feeling of autonomy and understanding of consent. I like the pacing of play activities to be informed by the child's interest and natural rhythms as much as by my session schedule or learning goals.
What I love about this work
My favourite thing about working with children is the hope it gives me for our collective future, every one is inspiring in their individual way, and always good for a funny or refreshing perspective. Also great to take time to be fully present with kids and get to know them as individuals, as well as the satisfaction of feeling that we've learned something together.
