I am in Ontario so I am allowed five children. I choose to work without an agency so that I can control the make up of my group. I care only for children not in school so the infants do not have to be inconvenienced to meet school buses. Right now I have a group of 7 so my makeup of kids varies each day. For my main group (3-5 days a week) I have kids age 15m, 18m, 2x2y, 3y - two girls and 3 boys. Filling in the other days I have two boys 16m, 2y. The 3 year old will be leaving in September to start school and the baby sibling (girl) of one of the others in care will join us. The 18m girl will start a maternity leave in July and I have started advertising to fill that space.

I love having my group all around the same age as it makes it easier to find and adapt activities for the others. It also means I do not have to worry about safety issues such as an older child that missed picking up a piece of tiny lego, or left the scissors too close to the edge of the table or left the bathroom door open by mistake.

What I like is that they can learn from each other - pushed when necessary to try new things and also for older children to backtrack some days to a more comforting play level without it seeming out of the ordinary. It is great for learning acceptance and patience which will be great for them in school when they have a mixture of abilities in the room and need to be able to include everyone in their play.

Not saying this age group is not without it's challenges and somedays certain toys become "mine" and have to go away for awhile but I have enough space and variety that I don't find there is the degree of behaviour issues one might expect with so many in this stage of development. I love it.

I also have an older special needs child of my own that is here with us all day and developmentally she fits in well with the group and they accept her without issue which is not something you can count on with an older group.