Kimihia Early Learning Centre

Father's Day Celebrations 2024

On Saturday the 10th of Aug2024, at the NZ Early Childhood Council 2024 conference held in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Kimihia Early Learning Centre was honoured to have received the award for the Exceptional Community - Based Centre for demonstrating outstanding commitment and setting a benchmark for excellence. There were Eight centres nominated in their category from all over NZ. This award recognises and reinforces their ongoing commitment to providing excellent education and service to their community .

Nga mihi-thank you to all our whanau who joined us for our Christmas party yesterday. For the families that couldn’t make it, we missed you! We all enjoyed a reka-delicious kai, face painting candy floss, and balloons. Unfortunately we had to take down the bouncy castle. We hope you all enjoyed the party as much as we did
Meri kirihimete ki a koutou-we wish you all a very Merry and safe Christmas!

At Kimihia, we know the value of sharing each of our families’ uniquely different cultures and traditions. There is so much for the whole community to gain from this kind of experience.
Diwali is one of the biggest and brightest festival on the Hindu calendar, celebrated in October and November every year( lunar calendar). We at Kimihia celebrated with a bright and colourful day of traditional dress, dancing and cooking.
It was a chance for Indian children in our centre to showcase some of their valued family traditions. In the days leading up to their celebration, all the children helped to make decorations, set up lights around the centre
On the day Mehramjit’s mum Monika one of our past student mum did Heena art for the children and teachers. there were performances by Zia Garcia and Jignasha Solanki. Rohan Chakrabarti, a prominent young leader in the Christchurch Indian community explained the significance of Diwali and its relevance to our modern lives. Some of the children came in their traditional dresses. The children were enchanted by the teachers and some of the children being dressed so beautifully.
We celebrated by lighting the clay diyas and by eating delicious rice, chickpea curry, potato curry, nan bread, poppadoms and enjoying the mango lassi (traditional yogurt drink) for lunch.
“The day had a really nice community feel to it and the music and decorations brought Diwali to life for our whānau.”

Father's Day celebrations: We celebrated Te ra oPapa Father's day, by inviting fathers, uncles, grand dads for a delicious parakuihi-breakfast for the special men that are a part of our children's lives.