Ditto what playfelt and mimi said. I am in Ottawa too and running a private home daycare. I have 5 daycare children plus my own two young ones (although one is in school full-time now). As Mimi said, you can have five not including your own and you can decide on ages. I personally prefer not to have any more than 3 under 2, but the entire five of them are 3 and under. My best advice for starting up is to really stagger your start dates of the new kids. Like plan to start with one and then another a month later and so on until you have the number you feel you need to be viable and can handle according to your ability and space. When I started out I thought I would just take 2-3 max, and now I have five CCPRN is awesome! Great support and workshops and information and also children's events if you drive with the kids. Also if you join ($25 for the year), your name is put on the list of providers and parents find your info that way. They have workshops for new providers who are just starting up as well as many other workshops. Welcome to the forum and to the daycare field!