The goal of Happy Hippo Preschool is to provide children with a positive experience in education.  The program is geared towards the development of literacy.  From an early age children are exposed to nursery rhymes, songs, and stories during which concepts of literacy are integrated.  The unique way of Happy Hippo is to base the program on research base curriculum where learning is developmental.  The focus of this literacy program is on phonological awareness (sounds in the language), use of language (speaking opportunities), concepts of print (print carries a message and directionality), and alphabet recognition (alphabet recognition).  Some activities that will promote the areas of literacy are listening to books read aloud, playing language activity games, discussing environmental print, learning book-handling skills, dictating stories, learning and recognizing letters, retelling simples stories from pictures.

Happy Hippo strives to cultivate the student’s intellect and character.  The curriculum integrates play in a multi-sensory style of teaching using the channels of art, drama and music.  By combining these learning channels, students learn to better express themselves and achieve higher self-efficacy.  Happy Hippo respects and values every child’s unique characteristics and unique ways of learning.  Our mission is to provide individual interaction, personalized care, learning, exploration, and play that are essential components of an effective Early Childhood Education experience.  Happy Hippo provides the learning foundation children need in order to develop the cognitive, communicative, and interpersonal skills necessary to succeed in elementary school while enjoying the process of learning.

Parental involvement is important at Happy Hippo, and highly encouraged, since it takes both family and school to help the child reach his/her full potential.  Happy Hippo integrates foreign languages such as Spanish, Portuguese or a possible third language into the daily curriculum in order to broaden the child’s view of other cultures and to encourage an informed view of different groups.  This multicultural and multilingual environment prepares the students with the necessary tools to excel in today’s global society.  Orange County Best Preschool