Hi, we're Happy Hearts DayCare.
We're a small, state licensed daycare on Maple Street where children from 6 weeks to 12 years spend their days playing hard, napping well, and being deeply known by the grown-ups who care for them.
Room to grow, people who notice
Give every child a place where they feel safe, celebrated, and free to play their way into who they're becoming. Give every parent a workday without worry.
That's the whole mission. Everything else, the ratios, the routines, the mud kitchen, exists to serve it.
Play-based, relationships first
Children learn from people they trust, so before letters, before numbers, before anything, our teachers build real relationships. They know the blankie, the current dinosaur phase, and the exact wrong way to cut a sandwich.
From there, play does the teaching. Blocks are physics. Dress-up is storytelling. Pouring water is math with a splash zone. Our job is to set the stage, then follow the curiosity.
The grown-ups your kids will talk about at dinner
Every teacher here is CPR and first aid certified, background checked, and genuinely delighted by small people.
Dana Whitfield
DirectorDana opened Happy Hearts DayCare after 15 years in early childhood classrooms. She knows every child's name by the end of week one and keeps the front office stocked with tissues and good coffee.
Rosa Mendez
Lead Teacher, Infant Care RoomRosa is our resident baby whisperer. She can settle a fussy infant, warm a bottle, and narrate the whole thing in a sing-song voice without missing a beat.
Jamie Okafor
Lead Teacher, Toddler Discovery RoomJamie speaks fluent toddler: sturdy routines, sensory bins, and endless patience for the phase where everything is "mine." Ask about the famous cardboard-box car wash.
Priya Nair
Lead Teacher, Preschool RoomPriya turns big questions into week-long projects. Her preschoolers head to kindergarten confident, curious, and very sure of their own opinions.
All names and faces are placeholders for the prototype
Four things we will never budge on
Safety first
Locked doors, low ratios, and eyes-on supervision, always. The exciting parts of our day are the finger paints, not the surprises.
Play with purpose
Play is not a break from learning, it is the learning. Every shelf, song, and squishy bin here is chosen with a reason behind it.
Families as partners
You know your child best. We swap notes at pickup, share photos during the day, and never pretend all the experts work here.
Slow mornings welcome
Drop-off should feel like a hug, not a hand-off. Linger at the window, wave twice, come in for a slow start. We open at 7:00 AM for a reason.
The boring stuff we take very seriously
The fun parts of Happy Hearts DayCare rest on an unglamorous foundation of checklists, certifications, and locked doors.
State licensed and inspected
We are licensed by the state and inspected regularly. Our reports live at the front desk, and Dana will happily walk you through them.
CPR and first aid certified
Every staff member holds current CPR and first aid certification, renewed every year, no exceptions and no grace periods.
Background checked
Everyone on our team passes a full background check before their first day with children. Full stop.
Secure entry
Doors stay locked all day. Families enter with a personal code, and every visitor signs in with photo ID and a staff escort.
Daily health checks
A quick, friendly wellness check at drop-off each morning keeps one sniffle from becoming a classroom-wide event.
Small groups by design
Ratios of 1:4 for infants, 1:6 for toddlers, and 1:10 for preschoolers mean every child is seen, heard, and helped.
The best way to know us is to visit
Tours run most weekday mornings and take about 30 minutes. Meet the teachers, peek into the rooms, and let your little one test-drive the block corner.
Book a Tour