Move over Sesame Street, it's Kolohe Time!
Educational series for keiki hits the Internet

By Lisa Asato / Ka Wai Ola Loa

After seven CDs and two Hawai'i Music Awards, the men of the musical group Vaihi have launched into new territory – keiki education.

The quartet from Kahuku has just released four "webisodes" of Kolohe Time, an educational show for keiki 8 to 10 that band leader Aaron Ka'onohi calls a mix between Sesame Street and The Wiggles – but with Hawaiian values.

"We call it 'Recess with a Purpose,' " said Ka'onohi, the show's co-creator and co-producer along with the other three members of the band. "We all have kids, and my kids grew up watching the Wiggles, Sesame Street, but there was nothing that ever catered toward their culture or their heritage. So we created the TV show, and we've been working on it for the past seven years."

The first episode contains four six-minute segments that are viewable online at YouTube by searching for Kolohe Time and on myspace.com/vaihi. The episode is dedicated to teaching the value of laulima, or cooperation. Writer Brad Bates has created a complete season of 10 episodes that will teach values like aloha and the quality of humility, or ha'aha'a.

But funding hasn't come easy for the project and Ka'onohi said expansion, and the project's very future, depends on it. "Basically without funding we can't do the show to the extent that we need," he said. "Right now what you have was all donated – everybody put in time free of charge in the hopes of making the show happen."

He said the pilot episode is tailored for the Internet, but the goal of the company is to get it into mainstream TV, like OC16 locally, and nationally. "Our ultimate goal is to try to pitch it to Disney or Nickelodeon, and that's what our producer is doing right now," Ka'onohi said, referring to co-producer David Kalama, whose credits include producing Merrie Monarch coverage for KITV-4.

Facing a minimal budget for the pilot episode, Vaihi enlisted the help of their seven children to star in the shows alongside their dads. One segment features the children making haupia from start to finish – husking coconut, scraping the flesh, squeezing the milk, cooking it and enjoying the final tasty treat. Another segment introduces Maka'ala, the Magical Boy – a character in a body suit that tackles problems and figures out solutions. "He's the Yoda of the show," said Ka'onohi, who shares co-hosting duties with band members Bruddah Sam Langi Jr., Bruce Naluai and Piko Lakatani.

Momi Akana, founder and executive director of Keiki O Ka 'Āina Family Learning Centers, lent help focusing the show's educational aim and she helped the group get funding for the Maka'ala body suit, Ka'onohi said. "She's been part of it since the beginning," he said.

So far, response has been positive. "Educators have loved it. Teachers … have said, 'We've needed this for years,' " Ka'onohi recalled. "And there hasn't been any children's show in Hawai'i since Checkers and Pogo, and we came from the Checkers and Pogo era."

For more information or to help fund the project, contact Aaron or Sylvia Ka'onohi at 341-9949 or vaihientertainment@gmail.com, visit www.vaihi.net or call David Kalama at 536-5050.