Haylin Dennison: Survival in Hawaiʻi is hard and I think that if you’re from Hawaiʻi and you don’t come from independent wealth, it’s something that we all share in common, and that’s why we rely so much on our lāhui and community to make sure that all of our kids are okay.

A lot of times kids have to leave the island if they want to be quote, unquote successful or so that they can reach that kind of financial success that’s required to live here. But I do feel very fortunate that we’re able to come back to Hawaiʻi and that’s what we’re trying to instill in the kids, right? That they can sustain and live and thrive here, but it is gonna require effort and hard work.

Heather Mohr:  The most challenging part of being a parent here in Hawaiʻi is probably being so geographically distant from family. Even if you are from Hawaiʻi, there’s a good chance that a lot of your family members have moved away. And so I think that’s one of the unique challenges, but also the unique blessing to Hawaiʻi is that even if you don’t have your blood family here, you’re able to create ʻohana.

So I was not lucky enough to grow up here in Hawaiʻi, but have been here for over 20 years now. And so blessed to have been able to have and grow and experience childhood with my own children here.

Ryan Catalani:  One of the values that comes to mind that I think is important to instill in Ellis is a sense of responsibility, not just to himself or to us as his parents, but also to the community in general.

You know, there’s not really a way that I can ever directly repay my own parents for everything that they gave me, or my grandparents and my ancestors before them, for everything that they gave and sacrificed to get me to where I am today. It’s just immeasurable. But, what I can do is try to pay that gift forward to the next generation and help to lift up not only my own son, but also our community.

And so I do hope to instill that sense of responsibility to the greater community. And I think it is sort of uniquely reflective of Hawaiʻi, the sense kūleana, you know, the sense of responsibility to something greater than yourself.

Stephanie Lum:  I feel that children — and we — are very lucky to live in a place that is so beautiful and where we are in a melting pot of cultures here, a lot of different foods, a lot of different ethnicities.

The value I would say for our kids, and that I’ve tried to instill in my kids, is to be open-minded and to embrace differences and to also appreciate them and to learn as much as you can. And appreciate the beauty all around us. I know this is starting to sound really sappy, but it’s true. And we often take for granted just those simple things that Hawaiʻi offers us because we are inundated with devices and streaming movies — everything happening at the snap of a finger.

But if we could teach our kids to just take a step back and just realize the importance of just being still and appreciating this beauty that we’re surrounded by, that we are living in the best place on earth right now with the best weather and, and beautiful cultures. And just to appreciate that.

Susan Okoga:  I think it’s important that we’re all different. You know, children are different.

So there’re basic things that we’re teaching them, but really about understanding that they are all unique in a sense. Respecting the differences as well as trying to get everybody valuing that.

To be a friend means you need to listen and you need to care for your friends.

You know at this age, it’s all me, me, me, right? So their whole concept is “I want” or whatever. So the teacher will help them beyond the, me, me, me, you know, kind of thing.

Lee Ann Satele: You have to train them up. You have to be intentional and teach to be able to pass along the aloha spirit. We have to teach it. If not, it will get lost.

And so every summer we do a summer camp with our family, with our kids, and we put all the cell phones down. We put all the agendas out for one week or close to, and we focus on family. We focus on that training of aloha, of love, of prayer, of our faith, but we intentionally take that time out.