Hawaiian spoken at traveling preschool

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

WAIMANALO — The sound of the conch shell blown by 3-year-old Kapaia'ala lets everyone know it's time for lina poepoe, circle time.

Ka'imiola Earle, left, teaches the Hawaiian language to preschoolers at the Waimanalo District Park gym twice a week. Parents are encouraged to attend the sessions. The free traveling sessions are also taught twice a week at the Kailua Beach Park pavilions. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Welcome to the Keiki o ka 'Aina Family Learning Centers' free traveling preschool, a new program where only Hawaiian is spoken.

The concept underlying the program, developed by a Hawaiian language teacher who wants to reach more children earlier, is simple. Children learn languages best in their first three years.

The results are children becoming conversant in the language in less than four months if they are exposed to it daily.

"We have people coming to the program with children too young to do anything but they just want their child to be in the presence of the language," said Momi Durand, executive director of Keiki o ka 'Aina Family Learning Centers. "They want them to get an ear for it."

During lina poepoe they "read" a sentence that tells the day of the week, the month and the year. They tell time from a clock and sing familiar songs translated into Hawaiian: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "I'm a Little Teapot."

There was a song that teaches the parts of the body. Children sitting in their mom's or grandma's lap would touch that part when they sang about it.

Ka'imiola Earle, the preschool kumu, said he selects songs that have motion because they help children learn. Often children will memorize a whole song before they learn to repeat a whole sentence, said Earle, 37.

Earle, with nine years experience teaching Hawaiian to children, said that when Durand offered him the opportunity to run a traveling preschool, he took it because he felt he could reach more children and parents if he were in the communities. He was teaching preschool at a permanent site with Punana Leo Hawaiian immersion school but he had only a few students, he said.

The Family Learning Centers preschool operates from 9 a.m. to noon in Waimanalo on Tuesday and Thursday and at Kailua Beach Park pavilions near the boat ramp on Monday and Wednesday. Joining Earle is a second instructor, Kama Hopkins, 30.

Children from 6 months to 4 years old attend regularly. While class is in session, some of the children wander off, with mom following after them, but Earle is understanding.

Aukai, 19 months, keeps his grandma moving, but she said she knows he's picking up the language even though it appears he's not paying attention. Carolyn Remedios, 61, also brings her daughter's 6-month old baby and usually has another adult with her to help out.

"We just think it is really important to try to pick up a second language," Remedios said. "I'm so glad it can be Hawaiian."

Remedios, a Kane'ohe resident, said she learned about the classes from a friend and thought it was a wonderful opportunity for herself, since she had taken Hawaiian language classes for adults.

"I get an opportunity to try and learn the language and be able to speak it," she said. "I think I do this as much for myself as I do for the kids."

About 16 families take advantage of the program and only one of them doesn't make it to both sites for the classes, Earle said.

Lessons begin at 10 a.m. As many as nine learning areas are laid out, including a cardboard canoe, tables with books, a playhouse, wheeled riding toys and mats for tumbling.

Earle gathered the children at one end of the gym and seated them behind a line while he fished into a bucket and brought out a delicate black starfish, pe'ape'a. The children couldn't stay put. They wanted to be nearer as he spoke to them in Hawaiian about the ha'uke'uke 'ula'ula, or pencil urchin; unauna, hermit crab; and 'ina, small sea urchin.

Some of the children held out their hands to hold the sea creatures; others would have nothing to do with them.

While preschool programs can cost hundreds of dollars a month, the Family Learning Centers is able to offer this and other free programs thanks to federal grants. The center runs a total of 15 traveling preschools, offers a nationally acclaimed SAT-based kindergarten readiness program that is translated into Hawaiian; parenting classes; and a home program that trains parents to be teachers to young children.

Rene Morgan, 37, of Kailua, said she appreciates the free program and the opportunity for her children and herself to learn more about the culture.

"It's really a beautiful way to incorporate the culture and the native language," Morgan said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com. or 234-5266.