Helping Families, Nannies & Children Flourish
Who Is The Experienced Nanny
Hi, I’m Candi Vajana, the globe-trotting, adventurous, child-adoring 2017 Nanny of the Year (International Nanny Association), and founder of The Experienced Nanny.
After working with children and babies for thirty years, I decided to hang up my nappy bag, to bring my expertise and experience to families and nannies everywhere. Through 1:1 consultancy and specialised training, The Experienced Nanny equips families and nannies with all the childcare tools and know-how they need to help their children blossom into well-rounded individuals.
During my career, I came across many conflicting theories about how to support child development through the various stages. There is a lot of information out there and, for the new parent or nanny, it can be overwhelming working out where to begin.
After three decades of research, experience and proven success helping numerous families navigate almost every childcare-related challenge under the sun, I can safely say I have been there and done that with more children than most are responsible for in a single lifetime.
When you enlist the aid of The Experienced Nanny, you will receive professional and practical advice that really works because it is 100% tailored to the individual child, family, nanny and situation.
The Experienced Nanny is here for all families working with nannies, and all nannies working with families, to nurture healthy, happy households where families and nannies, and most importantly, the children, flourish together.
In My Experience: My Childcare Approach
Every family is different and every child is unique!
Working as a nanny has given me extremely specific insight into how various childcare and developmental approaches unfold in the home. My whole family approach is to observe, discuss and assess to help plan the future. My approach is nonjudgmental, but always open and honest.
My childcare approach is based on respecting children as individuals, helping them develop their own personalities and being respectful of their needs. I am firm but fair, consistent and nonjudgmental, I value humour and kindness, and I view the child holistically.
Simply put, viewing the child holistically means, where there is an issue, there is a cause, but the whole picture must be looked at in order to find it. When the cause is addressed and healed, any issues that stemmed from the cause are easily resolved. This concept has no limitations in its applications and may be used to resolve unhealthy sleeping patterns, subdued appetites and much more.
I have always been compelled to learn as much as possible about various child-care and educational philosophies, and my desire to grow in profession and abilities has consequently armed me with broad and deep knowledge. In addition to a plethora of reading, I have also trained in Montessori which taught me how to model the behaviour I want children to emulate, as well as how to set the stage for children to develop healthy independence.
Living and working in multiple countries has allowed me to observe first-hand differing cultural attitudes towards childcare and given me plenty of practice in approaching childcare and development in a way that respects the child and their family’s culture and brings out the best in them.
My international experiences have also endowed me with an array of techniques to borrow from across cultures in order to help each individual child best fulfil their potential.
About Candi, The Experienced Nanny
Experience is what shapes who we are, what we’re made of, and shows us what we are capable of. From an early age, I was always quick to form bonds with babies and children. In my late teens, my parents fostered a little girl for two years. Being her big sister for a time was an experience that showed me that I wanted to work with children one-on-one, rather than in a classroom setting. In addition, my father worked for a bank that was constantly relocating him, which resulted in my childhood being spent across multiple countries. These experiences made choosing to live and work as a nanny internationally a natural career choice.
Though experience played a big hand in the person I would become, it could also be said that childcare and wanderlust are in my blood. My British mother met my Italian father while working as an au pair in Sicily. I was born in Sicily, but we soon moved to Piacenza, then Reggio Calabria.
When I was 8, we moved to Turkey and subsequently lived through the violent 1980 military coup d'état – an experience that strengthened my resilience and saw me develop the ability to survive.
We returned to Italy when I was 11. At 18, I moved to the UK, where I was trained as an N.N.E.B nanny (Nursery Nursing Examinations Board), and was named Student of the Year in 1992. In 2017, I was named International Nanny of the Year by the International Nanny Association, of which I am a member, after receiving 5 separate nominations and passing their stringent interview process and background checks.
I am a qualified newborn care specialist and qualified potty trainer. Additionally, I am a trained and qualified Montessori Teacher and I have a B.A. from Anglia Ruskin University, UK.
My career has taken me to the USA, Belgium and Austria among other countries, where I have worked with the families of HP and UHNW clients.
I am currently based in Northern California. Travelling is in my blood, and sometimes I move furniture around for no reason. Luckily my husband loves travel as much as I do and tolerates the ever-changing layout of our furnishings.
