this week was spent at the beautiful Orakei Marae
with Billy's class - te Whanau Awahau
for anyone who doesn't know
he is part of a small bilingual class which has 19 children from 5-9yrs
they are all such gorgeous children
and most times you would look around to see them walking arm in arm
or taking care of someone else
there is a real sense of whanau in his class
with the tuakana (older) children having a sense of pride
in their role with the teina (younger) children
it was lovely to spend a week , not just with them,
but with their parents and siblings too
the first day we learnt about the history and stories of ngati whatua
Arlo spent the day with us on Monday
Monday night activity
make your own ice cream
they were a little excited to get to sleep at any reasonable hour
possibly the only sunrise pics you will ever see from me
but the tamariki were also awake early
and as I was running the kitchen
I was up early too
some lovely sunshine on Tuesday
a day spent at Kelly Tarltons
and lunch delivered down to them for a picnic in the park
night times were for singing, games,
and lots of sitting round talking from the adults when we got them to sleep
Wednesday trip to the waterfront along with a sailing trip
captured this one of Billy when I delivered Wednesday's lunch
Billy loved every minute of it
it's hard to describe but he is totally at home on a marae
and I know te Whanau Awahau
is an amazing learning experience for him and I
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