TESTIMONIALS
Ola Torres
“Aloha!! I have 2 summer school classes: 1st & 2nd graders and 3rd to 5th graders.
My younger haumāna enjoyed the story about laulima and the story of the land of No Aloha. They sat for the entire story attentively listening. We love hearing Lina Girl as the aunty narrator. My older class loves Mele Aloha since they learned the pī’āpā so they like to spell ALOHA.
I teach Papa Hana Noeau at Le Jardin Academy in the summer. Although most of these keiki have been born and raised here, they don’t understand that our Hawaiian culture isn’t always Hawai’i culture if you know what I mean. I always look for resources to use that’s entertaining and educational. Mahalo nui for your YouTubes! Definitely will be showing my classes next summer as well.”
“As a Native Hawaiian raised on the mainland, I struggled to keep our culture alive for my children. Moving from Hawai‘i to a place where we faced ignorance and discrimination, it was living aloha—sharing, respecting, and uplifting others—that helped us thrive. I wish programs like Kolohe Time had existed when my keiki were young; it would’ve made teaching them about our heritage so much easier. Every ‘ohana deserves that kind of support.”
Hiʻilei Taylor
“As a kumu who serviced every classroom in the school, I appreciated having the curriculum already separated between the younger and older keiki. While the content of course can be similar, there is a need for the distinction between lower and upper grade templates and presentation. I enjoyed having a lot of the prep work already completed, which then gave the opportunity to really study the lesson and personalize it. My haumāna (all grades!) loved the Aloha mele. It is a catchy and fun tune and a great way to reinforce the information in the lesson. In fact, my younger classes begged to sing the mele whenever we had time for reviewing prior songs! I personally appreciated the community discussion points for the older classes, too, as it challenged them to find ways to apply that value in their everyday lives. It was very rewarding as a kumu to see their excitement in coming up with the many ways they could apply that value each day. The visual illustrations as well as the video, “The Island of No Aloha,” kept my haumāna actively engaged in learning.“