Did you know that a 3-year-old child’s brain is twice as active as that of a college student?
We believe that a love for learning begins at home and that parents are a child’s first teacher. Who are we? We are HIPPY USA.
HIPPY is the acronym for Home Instruction for Parents of Pre-School Youngsters. Though we believe and demonstrate peace and love, we are not to be confused with the term Hippie from the ’70s.
HIPPY is an international program that started in Israel in 1969 as a research and demonstration project. It has since spread to other countries and came to the United States in 1984.
The program was designed to bring families, organizations and communities together and remove any barriers to participation that may include limited financial resources or lack of education. All HIPPY programs around the world follow the HIPPY model: a developmentally appropriate curriculum, with role play as the method of teaching, staffed by home visitors from the community, supervised by a professional coordinator and with home visits interspersed with group meetings as the delivery methods.
HIPPY has been established in the Eufaula City School System to help families prepare their 3- to 5-year-olds for kindergarten. We have a 30-week totally free program that empowers parents and helps children learn important kindergarten skills like how to hold a pencil, identify colors, listen and following directions, recognize their printed name and know their alphabet and be able to understand that letters have sounds.
This program takes place in the home of the family and does not replace pre-school, Head Start or day care. Once the family has filled out the application we assign a parent educator that will come to your home once a week for about an hour.
That parent educator will work around the parent’s busy schedule, thoroughly instruct the parent and provide all necessary tools like a curriculum packet, crayons, pencil, scissors, glue, shapes, books and more. In return the parent agrees to work with their child for 15 minutes a day.
We also have monthly group meetings on topics of interest to the parents. There is no need for a babysitter for these group meetings. Bring the child that is enrolled in the program along with siblings and they will have their own activities.
We are in the process of kicking off a new HIPPY year and are in need of participants. If you are interested please come by our HIPPY office located behind Central Office on 333 State Docks Road.
We will be glad to answer any questions and have you fill out our application. Office hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
