About Happy Day Play
One company. Every family need.
From your baby's first class to your child's birthday party, from expert-curated developmental resources to discovering the next family destination worth exploring, Happy Day Play is built to be your family's home base and trusted partner across the full landscape of childhood.
Happy Day Play, Inc. is a family learning company serving Staten Island, the broader New York City area, and New Jersey in-person, and families everywhere online. The company was founded in 2023 by Kaitlynn Blyth, a mother of two, Family Life Educator and former content strategy lead at What to Expect, the digital arm of What to Expect When You're Expecting. Happy Day Play offers in-person classes, family events, birthday party entertainment, school visits, brand partnerships, community outreach and digital resources for families with children ages 0 to 9.
Happy Day Play is the only education-based program in the New York City area built around the Family Life Education framework, a recognized academic discipline focused on family wellbeing and the role of caregivers in child development.
Company Overview
Happy Day Play, Inc. operates two regular class locations on Staten Island in partnership with the JCC of Staten Island (Bernikow JCC at 1466 Manor Road and Avis South Shore JCC at 1297 Arthur Kill Road), along with a third location at Babies R Us American Dream in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The company also runs pop-up classes and events across all five New York City boroughs and reaches families nationally and internationally through its digital platform.
Since launching in-person offerings in September 2023, Happy Day Play has welcomed thousands of families through its classes and programs, signature events, community outreach, party entertainment services and more.
Our Mission
Happy Day Play exists to support families through the earliest and most formative years of a child's life by treating the family as the primary unit of learning. The company's mission is to seamlessly integrate evidence-based family life education into the everyday rhythms of modern households, equipping caregivers with the tools, framework, and community to raise children with confidence and connection. Happy Day Play's work is grounded in the conviction that the family unit, supported by the right resources, is the most consequential developmental environment a child will ever experience.
Origin and Growth
Happy Day Play, Inc. launched in 2023 as a digital platform offering developmental activities, evidence-based information, and family-life guidance for modern families. The platform was designed to address gaps in the existing parenting content landscape, specifically the lack of resources written for households with multiple working parents, multiple caregivers, multiple children at different ages, and informed adult readers who did not require introductory-level guidance.
Within months of the digital launch, the audience began requesting in-person programming. Local families on Staten Island, where Blyth is based, were the most consistent in this request. After consulting with researchers in child and family development, Blyth designed a class and programming framework reflecting the same philosophy as the digital platform, unlike anything else available in the NYC area.
In September 2023, Happy Day Play partnered with the JCC of Staten Island, an organization with more than 90 years of community history, to launch in-person classes at both the Bernikow and Avis South Shore locations. Within months, Happy Day Play expanded to Babies R Us American Dream in New Jersey and added pop-up programming, signature events, school visits, and birthday party entertainment. The digital platform that started the company continues to grow alongside the in-person experience, reaching families across the United States and internationally through our social media and expert crafted digital resources.
Why "Grown-Up & Me," Not "Mommy and Me"
The traditional "mommy and me" model was built for a different era of family life. Happy Day Play deliberately rebuilt the framework from the ground up.
It's "Grown-Up & Me," because every caring adult counts. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nannies, godparents, and any other supportive adult in a child's life are welcome and valued. The language matters because the experience matters. Families today are made up of more than one type of caregiver, and the people raising children deserve a class designed to include them rather than assume them away.
More than one adult is welcome per child. Most programs cap participation at one adult per child. Happy Day Play classes were designed to allow multiple grown-ups to participate together, because real bonding happens when the whole family is in the room. A mom and a grandma can come together. Two dads can come together. A parent and an older sibling can come together as a "big helper."
More than one child is welcome per family. Happy Day Play offers one price per immediate family rather than per-child pricing. Siblings of different ages can attend the same class, because the curriculum is intentionally designed with developmental modifications that meet each child where they are. A 6-month-old and a 3-year-old can be in the same Family Open Play, the same Family Music, the same Sensory Art class, and both walk away having had a developmentally appropriate experience for their age and ability, all while the grown-ups had fun too.
This isn't a logistical convenience…it's the entire point. Families learn and have fun together. Happy Day Play classes, programs, and events are built so they actually can.
Origin and Growth
Happy Day Play was founded by Kaitlynn Blyth, a Family Life Educator and member of the National Council on Family Relations. Her professional preparation has been built around a single yet important specialization: how children develop, how families function, and how the youngest members of a family develop within that system.
Blyth's formal collegiate education started in English Language and Literature, Communication Studies, and Women's Studies, with a concentrated focus on pre and early literacy in child development. She subsequently pursued certification as a Family Life Educator through the National Council on Family Relations, a credential that requires nearly 5,000 hours of documented Family Life Education work experience for applicants holding a non-family-specific bachelor's degree, alongside competency across the discipline's ten content areas.
Before founding Happy Day Play, Blyth spent a decade at Everyday Health Group, the parent company of What to Expect, the digital arm of the most trusted parenting and pregnancy brand, What to Expect When You're Expecting. As the leader of organic content strategy for What To Expect’s website and app, she ensured evidence-based pregnancy and parenting guidance for families with children ages 0 to 5 reached families across one of the largest digital platforms in the field. During her tenure, WhatToExpect.com served 12.3 million monthly unique users and the What to Expect mobile application logged 24 million monthly sessions. The What to Expect team received a Webby Award along with multiple additional honors recognizing journalism and user experience in service of families. In 2021, Blyth represented What to Expect's parent company at the Nasdaq opening bell ceremony.
Blyth's earlier career included work in women's reproductive health, in early literacy, in special education with the New York City Department of Education, and even had an internship at a local PBS station in high school. The combination of these experiences shaped her decision to leave the school-system model and pursue family-centered work at scale.
Blyth lives on Staten Island with her husband and their two children, Madison (age 8) and Flynn (age 4).
Read Kaitlynn's full bio →
What We Offer
Happy Day Play offers the following:
Walk-in Grown-Up & Me classes. Family Open Play, Family Music, Sensory Art, Baby Sing & Sign, Family Crafternoon, Family STEAM, and Mazel Tots Early Literacy. Family Open Play is the only certified family open play program of its kind in New York City. All classes are designed for children ages 0 to 5 with their caregivers.
Commitment-based programs. The Family First Montessori Experience, a seasonal series introducing Montessori principles within a family setting for children ages 0 to 3. The Happy Trails Grown-Up & Me Adventure Club, a summer series for children ages 0 to 3 that incorporates outdoor exploration, gross motor activity, sound exploration, arts and crafts, and STEM activities.
Signature family events. Annual events including Pizza My Heart Love Day Party, Peter Rabbit Spring Family Party, Mom Prom (a Mother's Day celebration), Daddy Derby (a Father's Day event), The Great Pumpkin Party, Thanksgiving Parade Extravaganza, Noon Year's Eve and other events throughout the year.
Birthday party entertainment. Custom party packages for children ages 0 to 9, available at client venues or fully hosted at Simply Gather Events.
School visits and in-house field trips. Custom in-classroom or group assembly programming for early childhood centers and elementary schools.
Private pop-up playdates. Custom programming brought to private homes or client-selected venues.
Digital content. Expert articles, videos, and educational resources covering child development, family life education, and parenting, available to families anywhere with internet access.
Methodology and Framework
Happy Day Play operates from the Family Life Education framework, a recognized academic discipline that examines how families function as a developmental system. The framework is structured around the family as the unit of learning, which means it incorporates child development alongside the broader study of caregiver roles, family dynamics, and the relational context in which a child grows.
This is the structural feature that distinguishes Happy Day Play's approach from other early childhood programs. A class built on a subject-specific framework, such as music education or movement development, is designed to teach a child a particular discipline. A class built on a clinical framework, such as physical therapy or speech-language pathology, is designed to support one particular aspect of a child's development. A class built on Family Life Education is designed to engage the child and the caregiver simultaneously, because the framework itself treats both as integral to the developmental experience.
The Family Life Education framework is governed by the National Council on Family Relations and is organized around ten content areas: families and individuals in societal contexts, internal dynamics of families, human growth and development across the lifespan, human sexuality, interpersonal relationships, family resource management, parent education and guidance, family law and public policy, professional ethics and practice, and family life education methodology. Child development sits explicitly within this structure, alongside the broader study of how families function around it.
Happy Day Play's curriculum reflects this integrated approach. Classes and programs are built to support both the child and the caregiver in the same session, with developmentally appropriate activities for the child paired with insights and tools for the adult. The company collaborates with researchers in child and family development to keep curriculum aligned with current evidence on a quarterly basis.
Every staff member who leads or assists Happy Day Play classes is required to hold credentials and direct professional experience in family support, early childhood education, or human development.
In addition to its in-person classes and programs, Happy Day Play partners with consumer brands, family destinations, and family-facing experiences to design events, sponsored programming, and editorial coverage that reach families both regionally and beyond.
The company has produced multiple sponsored events, including at the flagship Toys R Us and Babies R Us locations at American Dream in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and has hosted a celebration Wellness Day event for Hoopla Family App, as featured on Netflix. Brand partnerships of this kind allow Happy Day Play to apply its family life education framework to commercial settings where credibility, developmental appropriateness, and family-friendly programming are required at scale.
Happy Day Play also publishes editorial content reviewing family destinations, family experiences, and family-relevant products across its digital channels. This work is grounded in the same evidence-based standards that govern the company's in-person curriculum and is informed by Blyth's decade of editorial leadership at one of the largest pregnancy and parenting media platforms in the United States.
Brands and organizations interested in partnership opportunities can contact Happy Day Play at hello@happydayplay.com.
Brand Partnerships and Editorial Reach
Class and Pricing Structure
Happy Day Play does not require annual contracts, registration fees, or long-term commitments for its walk-in classes. Class passes are valid per immediate family rather than per child, and siblings of any age within the recommended age range may attend together under a single pass. Class passes are transferable between siblings and do not expire. There are no cancellation fees, and missed classes do not result in lost tuition.
The company's "Grown-Up & Me" framework permits multiple adults from the same family to attend a class together with one child, recognizing that families today include a range of caregivers beyond a single parent. The curriculum is designed with built-in developmental modifications so that children at different ages within the same family can participate in the same class concurrently.
Locations
Bernikow JCC 1466 Manor Road, Staten Island, NY 10314
Avis South Shore JCC 1297 Arthur Kill Road, Staten Island, NY 10312
Babies R Us American Dream 1 American Dream Way, East Rutherford, NJ 07073
Pop-up programming is offered throughout the five boroughs of New York City and NJ.
Digital programming and resources are available to families anywhere with internet access.
Press and Media
Happy Day Play and Kaitlynn Blyth have been featured in SILive (Staten Island Advance), amNewYork, SI Parent Magazine, Care.com, and BestProducts.com, and have appeared on The Closing Table podcast, Community Made by GWC, and Highlighting Staten Island. A complete list of media coverage is available on the In the News page.
Contact Us
For class or program registration, visit the class schedule or purchase a class pass.
For media inquiries, partnership requests, school visits, or birthday party bookings, contact hello@happydayplay.com or (646) 957-4793.