Book series’ swansong at birthplace
Kihikihi Kindy launch for last Te Reo Singalong book
Kihikihi Kindergarten was the venue for a special book launch on Thursday, August 11. The book, Taihoa, e hoa!, is the 30th and final Te Reo Singalong book written by Sharon Holt. The series was born at Kihikihi Kindergarten and this book was photographed there. So it seemed appropriate to have a book launch where the series began.
Sharon published the first two books in the series 10 years ago, with the help of Madelize Bekker from Edumaxi Ltd. Since then, the series has grown and become loved by teachers and children throughout New Zealand. As well as launching the new book, the event at Kihikihi Kindergarten honoured Sharon’s dedication to producing te reo resources for teachers and children.
The latest book encourages us to find new ways to reduce the amount of rubbish we send to the landfill. It’s the second of two books in the series about caring for the environment.
Earlier this year, Sharon wondered about a theme for the final book in the series. She was surprised and delighted to receive a phone call from her friend Sue McCandlish, head teacher at Kihikihi Kindergarten. “Sue rang me out of the blue and asked if I had ever thought of doing a book about recycling and zero waste,” says Sharon.
Sue had no idea Sharon was working on the next book. “I was driving to work and thought ‘Sharon has not done a book on enviro-schools or zero waste’, so I phoned her. The response I got was so joyful,” recalls Sue.
Sharon wrote the book after connecting with Paul Murray from Para Kore and learning more about the zero waste philosophy he had brought to Kihikihi Kindergarten.
Sharon says the idea for Te Reo Singalong books began after she started learning te reo Ma¯ori at Te Awamutu’s Te Wa¯nanga o Aotearoa campus in 2002. Before then she had “no clue” about the language.
She has done many courses over the past 20 years. “I’m not fluent, but I have a passion for correct pronunciation,” she says.
Back in 2002, Sharon’s daughter
Sophie was enrolled at Kihikihi Kindergarten. “She didn’t want me to leave in the morning, so I thought, ‘if I am going to be here, I may as well practise my reo with the children’.” Sharon spoke te reo with the kindy children on Wednesday mornings. “I remember we had to change it to a Tuesday once, and the children said, ‘no that’s not right. We only speak Ma¯ori on a Wednesday’,”
Sharon fell in love with te reo Ma¯ori and wanted to share and learn while being active with the language. Through her time relief teaching in kindergartens and schools, she sensed a need for different Ma¯ori language resources.
“There were no easy resources for teachers to use unless they already had that baseline knowledge. I knew I could help with that through my background as a journalist, a children’s book author, a teacher and as someone learning te reo Ma¯ori myself,” says Sharon.
Sue and Sharon discussed ideas about potential resources, including putting the words in the books to music to help with pronunciation. Sharon made a couple of prototype books illustrated by Deb Hinde, but publishers were not interested as Sharon was not Ma¯ori. Those prototypes stayed in a filing cabinet for several years, until 2011 when Sharon was writing stories in English for Madelize Bekker as a contractor.
“The contract ended and Madelize asked me if I had any ideas for language learning resources. Of course, I told her about the prototype books in my filing cabinet and she wanted to hear more,” says Sharon.
“Madelize was one of the first people to really share my passion for these books. She loved the idea so much that she funded me to publish two books which came out at the start of 2012. Madelize also named the series Te Reo Singalong,” says Sharon. Those books were so successful that both were reprinted quickly. The idea took off and Te Reo Singalong books were finally born.
Ten years later, with the 30th book in the planning stage, Sharon and Sue decided that the book should feature photos of children at Kihikihi Kindergarten, bringing the full series circle from where the idea began. Sharon’s daughter Sophie Holt, 24, took the photos for the book, and her son Greg Holt, 26, wrote the melody for the song. “It was so special to have our children involved in this final book of the series, as they had both attended Kihikihi Kindergarten and grown up with me writing the books. It was a beautiful ending,” says Sharon.
At the book launch, Sue thanked Sharon “on behalf of thousands of early childhood, primary school teachers and children from all around New Zealand” for having the “vision and confidence to go ahead with the idea of Te Reo Singalong books”.
“Sharon had the knowledge and connections to make this happen and has been instrumental in revitalising te reo Ma¯ ori. She has encouraged and motivated many teachers to increase their level of te reo. Sharon has normalised the Ma¯ori language back