Happy Days Learning Center

Archived Q&A and Reviews

Feb 2005

My 3-year old son is attending Happy Days Learning Center in Lafayette (3205 Stanley Road, Lafayette, 925- 932-8088) and I highly recommend it to all parents, as a pre- school and before/after-school care in Lafayette. I desperately needed to send my son to a pre- school because the weekday babysitter did not work out, DVMS (and other Lafayette pre-schools) did not have any opening for my son, despite my cry for help. At the time, the Happy Days' Director/owner made room for my son and accepted him right away. For this kind act from Happy Days, I will never switch pre-school for my son, and I turned down DVMS the second time when they offered me an opening later. It was because I became less concerned about the philosophy or teaching program at a pre- school. A loving, caring, and supportive environment is what my son needs during his pre-school years. The tuition at Happy Days is the most reasonable compared to other schools in the area (since the Happy Days' owner owns the facility when she opened the school 25 years ago). But tuition was not my deciding factor. Happy Days offers my son a great nurturing and learning environment. The school has two large, shaded play yards for the kids, with all sorts of great toys and play houses (I still remember my son's birthday last October, after having a pizza party with his classmates, he refused to go home early with me. He spent the entire afternoon playing with me in the school front yard). The teacher-student ratio at Happy Days is lower than at other pre- schools. My son was taken care of by two of his class teachers during the day and also by several teachers from other classes at this school in the afternoon. He has the opportunity to interact with children of different age groups, especially in the afternoon. And he was happy receiving help, friendship, and support from older children. All teachers (12), most children (90), and a great portion of parents at this school know my son by name. I was so touched seeing a group of older kids singing a song for my son and then greeted him happily/loudly: ''Hi N.'' or \x93Bye N.\x94 in the play yard or in the classroom. Most teachers at Happy Days have been with the school for a long time. Happy Days also organized numerous memorable events for children and parents throughout the year: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparents' Day, Independence Day, Halloween Day, Thanksgivings Day, and Christmas/Holiday Season, etc. It was so sweet to receive beautiful/creative gifts/cards made by my son on these special occasions, in addition to his daily art work. The school also has special-assigned weeks to help kids learn about the world around them: Asian Week, Latino Week, African Week, etc.. Kids also get exposed to different languages at school (Spanish, Chinese, etc.) and they get to learn how to cook different ethnic food. I received oral reports from Happy Days teachers/director almost every day about things my son did/improved on during the day. Thanks to Happy Days, my son started talking more and knew how to spell his name (unexpectedly) before the age of 3. Watching other kids, he also potty-trained himself perfectly (and I was so thrilled that I did not have to teach him at all - No need to call Dr. Phil here). Children at Happy Days are attached to their teachers, who give them a lot of hugs or hold them in their lap throughout the day. The school also offers great/natural snacks/treats (including the expensive ''gummy bears'' that my son loves) to the kids. I and other parents felt so fortunate to have wonderful teachers for our children at Happy Days, so we just organized a successful fund-raising event \x93Appreciation Lunches for Teachers\x94' to provide our great teachers luncheon treats throughout the year. Regards. Sonia