Sofia Watkins, 4, plays with shapes. Her mother, Stacy Watkins, said that Sofia really benefits from the HIPPY program, as she cannot attend preschool.

Sofia Watkins, 4, plays with shapes. Her mother, Stacy Watkins, said that Sofia really benefits from the HIPPY program, as she cannot attend preschool.
By Kelly Doran
Sun staff

Four-year-old Sofia Watkins learns very naturally, her mother said.

However, her older brother Mason had issues that made it more difficult for him to learn, mother Stacy Watkins said. When Mason was younger, he really needed both preschool and Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters to get ready for kindergarten.

HIPPY is an international school readiness program that educates parents of children ages 3-5 how to get their children ready for kindergarten, said Maria Meinking, program coordinator of the Cincinnati area HIPPY. The program is accredited and literacy based.

The program is typically for families who have income guidelines at or below 200 percent of the poverty level and do not have access to another preschool program, although if a child needs both, HIPPY will help the child connect with a preschool program, Meinking said.

All of the supplies are provided and there is no cost to the parents for the curriculum, Meinking said. The only thing HIPPY requires of parents is time and engagement with the children.

Data has shown that children who go through HIPPY can score just as well as children coming from better-educated families with more resources, Meinking said.

In addition, HIPPY puts meaning behind things like letters and numbers, so that children don’t just memorize the alphabet, but know what letters comes after “o” without singing the song, Meinking said.

HIPPY home instructors come once a week and bring families a weekly curriculum.

The instructor works with the mother using role-play and then the mother works with the child throughout the week, said Gina Armacost, a HIPPY family educator.

The home visitors are amazing, Watkins said. She has found that the home visitors truly care about the children and she stays in contact with her home visitor even when she does not have a child in HIPPY.

Many of the families Armacost works with do not have many resources to teach their children, like a computer, home Internet or transportation to the public library, she said. With HIPPY, she brings parents the materials they need to teach their children.

“Their parents are their first teacher and they just have that ongoing relationship before school starts and the children have a much better success rate in school because they have that foundation,” Armacost said.

Parents learn a different way of engaging with their children during HIPPY, Meinking said. They begin to use the whole day as an opportunity to teach their children something.

Watkins has found this to be true in the way she interacts with her children. She is more aware of her surroundings and uses any opportunity to teach her children something.

Sofia is in the HIPPY program, because while she has a natural ability for learning, she is still benefits from the lessons, especially since she can’t go to preschool, Watkins said. HIPPY provides everything Sofia needs to be ready for kindergarten.

“The program is amazing and I recommend it to all of my friends who are coming up on children that age or have children that age, and sometimes even to strangers,” Watkins said.

Children in the HIPPY program take the Bracken School Readiness assessment, once in the fall and once in the spring to determine how the children are improving and where any weak areas are, Meinking said.

Bracken has been a good indicator of how well children will perform on KRA-L, Ohio’s kindergarten readiness assessment. However, beginning this school year a new kindergarten readiness assessment replaced KRA-L, so Meinking does not know if Bracken will be aligned with the new assesment but feels it likely will be.

In addition to weekly home visits, the staff also holds events, which allows time for interaction between the children in the program and gives parents time to meet and talk, Watkins said. She has made friends with people who are going through similar periods of life during the events.

HIPPY is a three-year curriculum that typically begins at age 3, but a 4-year-old may still start in the first year curriculum if the child needs to learn those skills, Meinking said.

Meinking does not enroll children for year three of the curriculum. Year three is for children who stay home when they are 5 years old because a late birthday prevents them from starting kindergarten.

The Cincinnati area HIPPY program serves over 174 children a year in areas of Hamilton, Clermont and Brown counties, Meinking said.

Part of the model of HIPPY is that the staff is a reflection of the community and staff members are or have been parents in the HIPPY program, Meinking said. The staff set professional and educational goals for themselves so they can continue to advance and will be employable when they move on to another job.

HIPPY is beginning enrollment for the 2015-16 program year, Meinking said. A child must be age 3 or 4 before Sept. 30 to qualify. In addition, children must meet enrollment guidelines.

HIPPY does take referrals anytime, Armacost said. If all the home instructors are full, those interested can go on a waiting list.

For more information on HIPPY, contact Meinking at 513-361-2162 or at mmeinking@ywcacin.org. HIPPY is one of the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati’s programs.