Na Kamalei Launching Native Curriculum
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The Administration for Native Americans has awarded $494,726 to Na KamaleiKoolauloa Early Education Program (K.E.E.P.) - its share of more than $2.5 million in federal funds awarded recently to Hawaiian education programs.
“The grant is for a three-year pilot for our brand-new early childhood curriculum called Lei Aku, Lei Mai (Lei Given, Lei Received): The Reciprocal Exchange of Knowledge,” said executive director Nalani MattoxPrimacio.
The program will benefit families from Kualoa Point to Waimea Bay.
Mattox-Primacio noted that until Lei Aku, Lei Mai, there was no published, action-learning curriculum for area families. The curriculum is culturally based and shared with families and educators.
“We’re taking early childhood learning back out into the natural environment, out of doors, and putting it in a family context,“she explained. “This really is a family-strengthening program. We consider the parents as teachers, so they are absolutely included. They help us design activities for the children and they take a lead in discussing issues that concern them, and they help find solutions.”
The grant also shows that the Legislature recognizes the importance of early childhood learning programs like this.
“We’re using the federal money to contribute to the general education community,” said Mattox-Primacio. “We’re sharing the curriculum with other organizations, other programs, teachers and families. The curriculum - available at no cost at http://www.nakamalei.org - comes with supplementary teacher training materials.”
Na Kamalei offers home training for children up to 18 months, at which point they are ready for the federally funded curriculum. Through age 3 they learn in a group with their parents. The goal is to give low-income children the support needed to prepare them for school.
“We work on really giving them a firm foundation, and one of the biggest and most important things we can do is give them social and emotional competence and confidence and a very good foundation in baseline science, math and literacy so that when these children move up to kindergarten,they’re no longer going to be behind.
“We want to make sure every child has an opportunity. When they hit their fourth birthday, we do transitional activities to help them get into area preschools.”
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