About us
Kia ora! My name is T, he uri no Ngai Tāmanuhiri me Te Whānau-a-Apanui, and we are the Tawhai family. I’m a loving mama and wife, freelance editor and a general creative.
Being homeschooled in my younger years I always held on to the value of whanau involvement in children’s education and learning through play but didn’t fully understand it until my own pepi came along.
Boo 👻 (2022) and Cub 🐻 (2024) were both born in Japan, which was such an amazing start and experience for our whanau, but when Cub was just 4 weeks old we packed our lives in to 5 suitcases and made our way back to Aotearoa.
Feeling guilty about leaving our home and steady routines I wanted to create a sense of order again and found that through KOI Kids.
The ‘noise’ of our home calmed down with more play-based activities, and having more English-Māori-Japanese resources that all looked nice together not only kept our babies familiar with the three languages but makes me feel more at home too.
My vision for KOI Kids is to help others feel more at home as well.
Aku mihi,
T x
About us
Kia ora! My name is T, he uri no Ngai Tamanuhiri me Te Whanau-a-Apanui, and we are the Tawhai family. I’m a loving mama and wife, freelance editor and a general creative.
Being homeschooled in my younger years I always held on to the value of whanau involvement in children’s education and learning through play but didn’t fully understand it until my own pepi came along.
Boo 👻 (2022) and Cub 🐻 (2024) were both born in Japan, which was such an amazing start and experience for our whanau, but when Cub was just 4 weeks old we packed our lives in to 5 suitcases and made our way back to Aotearoa.
Feeling guilty about leaving our home and steady routines I wanted to create a sense of order again and found that through KOI Kids.
The ‘noise’ of our home calmed down with more play-based activities, and having more English-Maori-Japanese resources that all looked nice together not only kept our babies familiar with the three languages but makes me feel more at home too.
My vision for KOI Kids is to help others feel more at home as well.
Aku mihi,
T x
Our vision
Our vision
K
Knowledge
Help others implement their cultural practices and language at home
O
Order
Bring peace and order into families’ lives
I
Independence
I hope to empower our tamariki and our parents with independence
Our vision
Our vision
K
Knowledge
Help others implement their cultural practices and language at home
O
Order
Bring peace and order into families’ lives
Follow us on socials to see how we implement these!
I
Inspire
I hope to inspire our tamariki and parents with play and routine ideas
Did you know?
That ‘koi’ translates
to ‘smart’
and ‘sharp’ in te reo Māori
while ‘kashikoi’
means ‘smart’
in Japanese
Did you know?
That ‘Koi’ translates
to ‘smart’
and ‘sharp’
in te reo Māori
While ‘kashikoi’
means ‘smart’
in Japanese