About HIPPY
Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters
Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a three-year, program that focuses on school readiness for children ages 3 - 5 and in-home teaching skills for their parents. HIPPY believes that all parents want the best for their children, all children can learn, school readiness knowledge can be taught, and people learn by doing.
HIPPY is a prevention program. It is based on the idea that children, who are taught the skills they need to be successful before they begin school and whose parents are involved in their education from the start, will be successful in school and develop habits of lifelong learning.
HIPPY promotes community development by recruiting parents from targeted communities to serve as home educators providing weekly service (30 weeks a year for three years) to their peers and neighbors under the supervision of a professional coordinator. Often, the home educator position is the first step in a career ladder.
HIPPY home educators role-play the weekly curriculum with parents and bring information and referral services to families according to family needs. Peer-to-peer service delivery in the participants' home fosters trust and reaches isolated families.
The research-based curriculum meets national learning mandates, such as No Child Left Behind, and is based on the idea that learning begins at home. The curriculum is available in English, Spanish or Mandarin Chinese. The curriculum is scripted for a novice teacher and is interesting and developmentally appropriate for the child.
HIPPY brings families, organizations and communities together and removes barriers to participation that may include limited financial resources or lack of education. HIPPY is free to participating families.
All HIPPY programs have membership contracts with HIPPY USA. Each new HIPPY coordinator attends a week long orientation to the program. Each new HIPPY program does a community assessment and receives a national coordinator and home educators at the beginning of their first program year. This trainer returns at the end of the first year to ensure fidelity to the model. Each year HIPPY programs receive a two-day visit from a national trainer and every two years HIPPY programs do a self assessment. The HIPPY model now includes a home educator certification process.