Staff Reports
There’s a new kid in town.
Well, a new daycare at least.
Happy Hippopotamus Daycare Academy opened its doors in early October at the former site of a daycare center on North Walcott, but with a whole new staff, décor, and attitude, they’re excited about being a part of the Jefferson community.
“Our number one goal is to be a preferred place for you to leave your children and trust us,” said owner Kyle Kamp. “And our second goal is to be a perfect place to work in Jefferson. I mean, we treat our teachers and staff like family.”
Kamp based the Jefferson daycare on a model some friends of his have at Happy Hippopotamus in Longview, his mother’s love for children, and his desire to help the community.
“I knew coming from Dawn Kamp that she just has a passion for kids,” Kyle said. “And then so we decided to move forward in doing our own Happy Hippo. You know, it’s a great business to be in, you get to help the community, you get to mold little minds, you get to help teach. Jefferson is a great location. And we decided we would go ahead and open here and do it as a Happy Hippo.”
Led by director Brianna Hearn, each classroom has a different age group with its own curriculum. Kyle said they plan on adopting more programs as more children are enrolled.
“We will get into the Texas Rising Star program once we’ve been open long enough,” Kyle said. “But I know the community that we’re in, and we have a program called ‘Ready to Read.’ “
Kyle said while the goal is to have children excited about reading and “we’re going to re-emphasize the importance of the imagination and just the fun of reading. Everybody likes to get read to and likes stories, but we don’t read stories. We tell stories to children. And there’s a big difference. Anybody can sit up there and just read a book. But then there’s other people that can go up there and tell this story, and make it interesting.”
Happy Hippo can accommodate up to 110 children in their location.
“We take six weeks, or newborns, up to 12 years old throughout the summer, and holiday breaks. As of right now we are enrolling from six weeks to four years old for daily care,” said Kyle.
Happy Hippo also accepts the Texas Child Care Services (CCS) program which provides a credit for low-income parents to have their children in daycare while they are at work.
“Brianna is the person to talk to about CCS,” Kyle said. “She knows all about the program and can help get kids signed up. She will work with parents individually, in a private setting, to help them understand the application process with the state and assist them signing up.”
Happy Hippo is still growing on the teacher front as well.
“We are always hiring good people,” said Kyle. “We are currently looking for more teachers. We’re looking people that have a passion for children. We’re also looking for a part time/full time cook.”
All staff has been through all state training requirements, background checks, and fingerprinting.
“Everybody in the building, all the teachers, myself, and the maintenance man, are CPR certified for children and infants and they are all they’ve had all their classes for their age group teacher,” he said. “We literally went above and beyond on getting everybody that has anything to do with us fingerprinted and their background checked. And to me that’s how it should be.”
Kyle said they wanted to make sure mom and dad had time to get to work in the mornings and be open late enough “where you don’t ruin the evening. This way parents or guardians can make sure they have plenty of time to get off work and make it home in time to do that.”
Happy Hippo is open from 6a-6p Monday through Friday and is located at 1107 N Walcott. They can also be reaced via email at JeffersonHappyHippo@gmail.com, or by calling 903-601-4435.