Learning Te Reo Māori With Your Kids? Start With This Morning Menu!
Before I have my coffee, I can barley English, let alone teach a toddler te reo Māori – but I know that mornings are when our tamariki are fresh, their brains are rested and ready to absorb all kinds of learning.
So we’ve gotta make the most of that – especially when we’re trying to raise bilingual tamariki! But let’s be real: ain’t nobody got time to run a whole classroom before 9am. I just really wanted a way to bring te reo into our mornings without adding more stress or prep to my plate.
That’s when I started seeing all these “morning menus” floating around Pinterest in the homeschooling space—simple little printables kids could use each day to ease into the morning, practise a few skills, and build a rhythm. And I thought:
Yeah nah—I’m totally stealing that. And making it Māori.
and so I started mapping out what would later become one of the best ways to learn te reo Māori with your tamariki that we’ve ever made!
Creating a Māori Language Printable That Actually Fits Real Life.
I made a rough version back in February, printed it out and figured we’d just give it a go and see how we went.
It worked… kind of.
I had these sections where your tamaiti was meant to write their name, the day, the date—and mine just stared at me like, “Mum, I’m four.” We weren’t quite there yet with writing skills, and honestly, it felt more like a worksheet than a morning rhythm.
So I changed things up, took some parts out, added others in and printed it again. We’d use it for a few more days and I’d notice what didn’t quite click—then I’d fix it. Add something. Delete something. Repeat.
Sometimes it was a layout issue. Sometimes the content didn’t hold his attention.
Sometimes I forgot to replace the placeholder text with the actual kupu. 😅
It became a cycle of real-life testing, adjusting, and rebuilding until it felt like something that actually fit our routine—not just something that looked good on paper.
Designed to Flex Around Your Whare, Your Tamariki
One of my favourite things about the Morning Menu is how adaptable it is. Because no two tamariki are the same. And no two whānau routines are either. So this resource isn’t about doing things one way—it’s about giving you lots of simple prompts, and letting you decide how to use them.
Here’s how we’ve made it work in our whare—and how you might make it yours:
🧽 Make It Reusable
Pop the pages into a clear plastic sleeve or laminate them, and use washable or whiteboard markers to fill it in each day. You can wipe it off and start fresh again the next morning—without using up a million pages or reprinting anything.
🏡 Use What Fits Your Whānau
The “whānau” section, for example, can spark a kōrero about your household, or help your tamaiti learn kupu for different family members—even if they don’t live with you. You could use it to talk about siblings, cousins, grandparents, or your wider whakapapa.
🧺 Keep Chores Super Flexible
You’ll notice the chores are pretty open-ended—just simple icons like a bin or laundry basket. That’s on purpose.
You might use the laundry basket as a cue to put away clean clothes… or to help hang washing on the line… or to pop their dirty socks in the wash. You decide what makes sense in your space.
📮 Build Up Real-Life Skills Gently
The address page is great for early literacy. You can write their address in pencil for tracing, practise memorising Nan and Papa’s street name, or even use it as a gentle lead-in to writing envelopes for letters or drawings to send to loved ones.
Everything in the Morning Menu is made to be useful, doable, and a little bit playful—so you can keep coming back to it as your tamaiti grows and their learning evolves.
I Wanted it to Feel Māori, Not Just Translated
This wasn’t just about slapping a few kupu Māori onto a cute template and calling it a day.
I wanted tamariki using this to grow up with resources that reflect who they are. That meant including:
- 🧬 Pepeha – so they can start connecting with their identity from early on
- 🌙 Maramataka – to connect them with the moon and natural rhythms
- 🧠 Everyday kōrero – things like the weather, feelings, and daily life in te reo Māori
And while I was at it—I figured: Why not include some real-life learning too?
Things like:
- How to dial emergency services (111, 000 or 911)
- How to say their full name and address
- Recognising numbers, days of the week, colours
- Helping around the whānau and contributing to the whare.
Because I don’t just want my tama to grow up bilingual—I want him to be confident, capable, and connected to who he is.
How We Use This Te Reo Māori Printable in Our Routine
Do we use it every single day? Nope. We’re not that consistent, and that’s okay. But even using it just a few times a week, I can see the difference. More kupu. More confidence. More connection.
Most of the time, we use it with or straight after breakfast. It’s kind of become our little Māmā/Tama moment before the rush of the day kicks in and we always start with the day of the week and the weather as our anchor. Then Mr 4 gets to pick one or two extra pages to practise, depending on how he’s feeling (or how long I’ve got before we need to brush teeth and find shoes).
When we first started, I worked really closely with him on every page—talking through the options, guiding him with the kupu, making it a shared little kōrero. Now? He’s starting to take the lead!
He’ll go ahead and circle things without being asked. He’s starting to recognise what pages mean what. He even asked the other day if it was still “Mei or if we’re in Hune yet” because he wanted to see if it was almost his birthday.
It’s small—but it’s real. And it’s building his reo in a way that fits naturally into our life.
And I’m learning too. Has everything stuck for me? Kao, not even close. I still have to use my own printables to jog my memory—because I’m walking this reo journey right alongside him.
If you’re homeschooling, unschooling, pre-schooling or just trying to build a more bilingual home, this resource is gentle, flexible, and easy to start with—even if you’re not fluent yourself.
Ready to Download YOUR
Te Reo Māori Morning Menu?
If you want to add more reo Māori to your morning routine without adding more overwhelm—this might be the perfect place to start.
🧡 Check out the Morning Menu Printable – Available on the website MONDAY JUNE 2nd 2025
It’s gentle, flexible, and made to fit your real life—not some perfect Pinterest version of it.
Whether you use it daily or just a few times a week, it’s one of those small things that adds up. More kupu. More connection. More confidence—for you and your tamaiti.
I’d love to hear how your whānau uses it
When you print it out, tag me @moathanwords or flick me a message—I genuinely get so excited seeing it in action!
Let me know what your tamariki love most, what pages they keep going back to, or even the creative ways you make it your own.
And if you spot anything that’s not quite right, or you have a suggestion or idea for how to make it even better—please let me know!
I’m always open to feedback and would love to keep improving this with your help.
This isn’t just a resource—it’s something we’re building together, one kōrero at a time. 💛
I’m still learning as I go—but this blog, my website, and even the income from my printables wouldn’t exist without the tools I found on Wealthy Affiliate. If you’re thinking about starting your own blog or selling your own resources, it might help you too.
(And yes, it’s an affiliate link—so if you sign up, it helps support MoaThanWords ✨)