E rere ana te tai o mihi ki a koutou

We made our moment last an hour in our Early Childhood Centre. We had a competition among the staff when we tried to say whīwhiwhi arero in the reo - the children listened and decided which kaiako was the winner. It was huge fun! Then I read Kanohi from the Reo Pēpi series with the one-year-olds and we practiced finding our waha, ihu, niho, taringa, ngutu and arero!! The pēpi were very good. We also sand tihore mai te rangi and puhererua as our songs before lunch. We had so much fun that I have now signed up for mahuru māori - that means I will be using te reo with the tamariki and my kaimahi at least one hour every day.

Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to normalise this wonderful reo.

Kei runga noa atu

Eric at the Ole Schoolhouse Early Childhood Centre in Rotorua.