We are just over a month into our distance learning and I find myself saying, wow, it has only been a month!? Shout out to all the Kumu there helping to make this distance learning meaningful.
It was a huge adjustment for us, there was lots of nagging and tears in the beginning. My day went from being able to work on shop biz (sewing, packing orders, emails, social media, and everything else) to sitting next to Kalei from 8am - 2pm and staying up late to get my own work done.
In between his online classes and haʻawina (lessons), I am bouncing between caring for the girls and trying to get some work done on my computer or phone but it has been hard.
But one of the things that I have loved about distance learning is watching Kalei learn ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi. If he were in school I probably would not know what he is doing in class - the songs they sing, the kinds of activities they do, how they interact with their kumu. It has been really cool to see all of this and refresh my ‘Ōlelo alongside him. I am super grateful for this time even if it did force me to shift around my day.
I have truly enjoyed watching Kalei pick up ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, even while distance learning. What has impressed me even more is how much Kili has picked up. Sometimes I worry since Kili is often left out, old enough to not be as needy as Mehana but not old enough to go to school. I actually pulled her and Mehana out of Tūtū and Me so I could focus on Kalei and his work.
One day we were doing something (I don’t remember what) and I heard her counting in the distance…ʻekahi, ʻelua, ʻekolu, ʻehā, ʻelima, ʻeono, ʻehiku, ʻewalu, ʻeiwa, ʻumi! I literally stopped what I was doing to go ask her to count for me again! For our middle child, who sometimes I feel like roams the house during the day (finding snacks, playing on her own, and watching her iPad or playing learning games)…I could not believe that she was picking up some ʻōlelo just from half listening!
To help engage her more in what Kalei was doing, I started creating some worksheets for her to do. She loves to do her “homework” and she sees that it is similar to what Kalei is doing.
I hope to continue adding some of these free printable to the shop to help encourage you all to learn ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi at home. We arenʻt a fluent ʻohana but I hope that as our Keiki grow we can normalize speaking Hawaiian at home.
Click here to explore our ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi Collection.
Please Note: For any of our digital downloads:
You are granted a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, license to access and use the digital products You purchased for your own personal use. You hereby agree that you will not modify, publish, transmit, reverse engineer, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit any of the product, in whole or in part. By purchasing, You further agree that You shall not create any derivative work based upon the products from the Website and You shall not offer any competing products or services wholly based upon any information contained in the products.