Daycare vs Staying Home with Your Child in Regina SK | Daisy Days Guide

The daycare vs. staying home decision is deeply personal and depends on family values, finances, career considerations, and your child’s specific needs. With the CWELCC program dramatically changing the cost of licensed daycare in Regina SK to approximately $10/day, the calculus has shifted significantly. Here’s an honest look at both paths.

The Case for Licensed Daycare in Regina SK

• Peer socialization: Children in group care develop peer relationship skills at a pace impossible to replicate at home. By age 3, children in quality daycare demonstrate stronger social competence than age-matched children in home care.
• ECE expertise: Certified Early Childhood Educators bring specialized training in child development, curriculum design, and early intervention. Most parents aren’t trained in ECE.
• Language development: Research consistently shows stronger vocabulary growth in children in quality group care versus home-only care — due to the high volume of peer and educator talk exposure.
• CWELCC cost: At approximately $10/day, licensed daycare at Daisy Days Daycare in Regina SK now costs $200-220/month for full-time care — making the financial calculus heavily favour returning to work for most families.
• Parent mental health: Returning to career fulfillment and adult social connection benefits many parents’ mental health and relationship quality.

The Case for Staying Home

• Individualized attention: Home-based care provides one-to-one responsiveness impossible in any group setting
• Attachment security: Extended time at home can deepen parent-child attachment security during sensitive early periods
• Flexibility: Home care accommodates illness, family travel, and schedule variability more easily
• Cultural/values transmission: For families with strong cultural or religious practices, home care enables more immersive transmission of family values
• Lower illness exposure: Children in home care have fewer infectious illness episodes in early years (though group care builds long-term immunity)

The Hybrid Approach

Many Regina SK families choose a middle path: licensed daycare 3 days/week with one stay-at-home parent 2 days/week (or grandparent care). This captures the developmental benefits of group care and ECE programming while maintaining deep family time. CWELCC applies to the enrolled daycare days at approximately $10/day.

The Financial Reality with CWELCC (2026)

Before CWELCC, the decision to return to work often involved a “daycare cliff” — where one parent’s entire income went to daycare. With CWELCC, that dynamic has changed:

• Full-time licensed daycare at Daisy Days: approximately $10/day × 22 working days = $220/month
• Versus pre-CWELCC full-fee: approximately $45/day × 22 days = $990/month
• Annual CWELCC savings: approximately $9,240 per year

For the vast majority of Regina SK families, returning to work now makes clear financial sense — the $220/month childcare cost is far below the income from even part-time employment.

→ 2026 Childcare Tax Credit — Additional savings
→ Full-time vs Part-time Daycare in Regina SK

Contact Daisy Days Daycare to discuss enrollment options. | 306-807-3233 | 2007 Potts Crescent East, Regina SK S4V 2E5