HIPPY delivers home lesson in early learning

An innovative, collaborative educational program in Hillsborough County helps parents of preschoolers prepare their children to succeed in school. And it provided a guide to help them along the way.

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a home-based school readiness program that provides parents with books, educational materials, and a curriculum of related daily activities to become actively involved in their young child’s learning. A trained “home visitor,” often a former HIPPY parent, comes to the parents’ house once a week to coach them on how to use the materials and activities to teach their child,  and how to stay engaged in their child’s education through their school years. 

“We find that a lot of parents do not necessarily know how to work with their kids,” HIPPY Parent Involvement Project (HHPIP) Program Director Brenda Brinson says. “A lot of parents think their kids will get what they need once they get to school. They don’t realize that there are things they can do at home.’’ 

Learning made fun

Funded by the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County, HIPPY serves nearly 300 Hillsborough families free of charge and has the capacity to serve 500. Hillsborough residents with children ages two through five are eligible to apply. Each age group has its own 30-week curriculum, which includes a language component, math, science, motor skills, and literacy, Brinson says. Parents are expected to work with their children for 15 to 30 minutes a day, five days a week. The curriculum includes dancing and rhyming activities for the kids, Brinson says. She says the activities are designed to make use of household items and make learning fun. 

“They’re playing with their kid, and they’re realizing, ‘Although I’m playing with my child, my child is learning at the same time,’” she says. “It kind of reinforces their skill and their confidence as their child’s first teacher.”

For example, four-year-olds get a story book called “Jump Frog Jump!”  In one activity, parents play leapfrog with their child and refer back to the story. That helps the child remember and understand the story, building their comprehension skills. One book for two-year-olds shows mama and baby animals. Parents and children work with cut-outs of the mama and baby animals, with the child trying to match them up.

There are also group meetings for parents to participate in active learning activities with their children. Often, the entire family comes, Brinson says.

HIPPY is an international movement that started in Israel in 1969, spreading to Germany, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and, in 1984, the U.S. 

The Hillsborough County HIPPY program launched in 1991 and moved to the University of South Florida campus in 2012. It’s part of the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences. Brinson says people mostly learn about the program through word of mouth. Agencies refer families. HIPPY also does some recruiting.

“I think the program is awesome,’’ says Tierra Michel, whose four-year-old son, Reece, and three-year-old daughter, Mia, are in the HIPPY program.

Michel says both children also attend a developmental daycare center that prepares them for school. HIPPY reinforces what they’re learning there, which better prepares them for school, she says.

“Reece goes to kindergarten at the start of this year,’’ Michel says, “and I’m very confident that he can perform at the level that his school expects him to, if not more.’’

During the week, she and her husband read with the children at night. Because of their busy work schedules, more time-consuming activities, like science, are done on Saturdays, Michel says.

And they meet once a week with their guide, Pooja T.

“She’s become like part of the family,’’ Michel says. “We see her all the time. The kids know her very well.’’

Parents get good at this. In fact, most HIPPY guides were parents in the program first. Sandra Arzuaga Sanchez is one of them. Sanchez first participated in HIPPY with her son in 2011. She has been a guide since 2013.

“When I learned about HIPPY and how they provide you that guide throughout the program – it was not just you by yourself, you had somebody there every week to guide you – I thought it was great,” she says. “And once we started, we just fell in love with the program.”

For more information, go to Florida HIPPY

This story is produced through an underwriting agreement between the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County and 83 Degrees