The Color My World Childcare centre in Weyburn, Sask., is expanding its current facility and opening up space for new clients, with a much higher capacity for school-aged children.
“School-aged children face challenges in finding affordable, high-quality childcare due to limited government grants and expensive hourly rates,” said Jen Symes, Director of Color My World Childcare.
“Daycares struggle to accommodate school-aged children due to staffing requirements, noise levels, and lack of programming specific to their needs.”
Finding childcare in Saskatchewan has been a growing stressor for parents, and Weyburn is no exception. Most government-funded facilities are full and the waitlist is expansive.
Not only is there limited space around town to enroll a child of any age in daycare, there is even more limited space for children ages six and older.
Currently, Color My World has over 250 children on their waitlist and the list keeps growing. That is why Jen Symes, the Director of Color My World Childcare, proposed an expansion of their current building with the purpose of creating more space for school-aged children.
Once the funding was granted from the government, ground was broken and the new facility started to come to fruition.
The new building will be a different layout in comparison to the old building. The old building is an open concept divided into sections splitting up each age group.
The new building will resemble a school design with classrooms dedicated to each age group as well as a gymnasium.
The new facility will house the infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners, while the old building will house the school-agers and remain open concept to allow for designated areas of play such as gross motor, sensory and art.
The two buildings will be connected inside and out to allow children of all ages to enjoy the perks of both facilities.
In addition to more space for school-aged children, Symes also hopes to impose new programming specifically tailored to the needs of that age group.
“We’d be doing a lot more excursions, a lot more of the ‘hands on’ type of things,” she said. “The baking, the woodworking and that kind of stuff … would be really nice to offer for the school-agers, because they’re more capable of doing it.”
The currently enrolled school-agers at Color My World are excited about the new build and the new programs it’ll bring.
With more excursions, six-year-old Reiss Foster said she will be very excited, as her “favorite thing about daycare is going to the park.”
With more space outside, first-grader Piper Meaden is hoping to see “monkey bars, monkey bars, monkey bars!”
The new build also gives a relief to parents in search of childcare. Adding a new expansion allows for more children to be enrolled.
Color My World currently is licensed to hold 50 children and the new building will allow for 90 more spaces, creating a total of 140 spaces for children in Weyburn.
“It’s going to be such a relief to have to be able to call people that [are] constantly calling me back, like, ‘is there a spot?’ and be like, ‘hey, I have a spot for you.’ It’s a relief for those people,” Symes said.
The new Color My World Childcare facility is still under construction, with plans to open its doors by September 2025.
