Video transcript
Halime Duzen (migrant advocacy worker, mother of 2): Play is very important for babies. Why? Because of learning.
Naime (mother of 2): My name is Naime. I am 33 years old, and I have one ten- months-old baby.
Halime: Babies can learn numbers with fun activities
Naime [counting her baby’s fingers]: One, two, three, four... High five!
Halime: You can use your fingers, you can use cups, you can use cars, you can use colours.
Naime: He likes everything. He likes to play the ball, peek-a-boo, hide-and-seek.
Halime: As parents, we’ve got big responsibilities. I think we need to be very creative.
Naime: I can’t read too much, so just look at the pictures.
Halime: As a parent, if you talk with them, and then if you laugh with them, if you sing with them, that’s the most important thing, as a parent, to grow up our children. Enjoy your baby and then they will learn everything from you.
Naime: I am dancing for my baby and I am singing, Turkish baby song. [In Turkish with English subtitles] Being a mother is beautiful. Seeing your children grow, bringing them into the community. And then they can look after you when you’re old! [laughs] It’s wonderful.
Tajma (mother of 2): I’m Tajma; I’m a mum of two kids. Eldest one is ten years and the younger one is 22 months.
Halime: Babies love to read, even before they speak.
Tajma: As a habit, we read always. My hobby is reading but my kids copy and yeah, they are good readers. I try to contact with the little one, showing and pointing, and then little by little they expand, according to their age – baby books, toddler books, like that.
Halime: You can read to your baby every day. When you sit down with your baby, it’s very important physical contact, hold them nice and then reading the books together. Such a great way of attachment with your child.
Tajma: The main thing I enjoy as a parent is spending time with my kids and interact with them, do a lot of things with them and play with them. Yeah, I’m so enjoying and so happy.
[Tajma sits on the floor, singing and doing actions with her daughter]
Halime: I think singing is such a great activity, such a relaxing activity. You can learn with singing. You can relax with singing.
Tajma: Especially, we need to sing with them. Not only put the radio – we need to sing, and we need to do some actions – even with the Sinhalese or the English – yeah, they love that; they try to always copy us.
Tajma: They are like flowers, they are blossoms. When the smile comes through their hearts, hugs and kisses – yeah, I like. If you can spend even some little time with them, yeah, they are so happy and they can learn a lot. And we can learn a lot from them sometimes.
Tagrid (mother of 4): My name is Tagrid. I came to Australia in 2002. I’ve got four kids: three boys, one girl.
Halime: I think it’s very important, even if they don’t know [how to], read with your child, explore the world with your child, and encourage them to learn more.
[Tagrid reads a book and talks about it with two of her sons]
Halime: They can see the colours there, they can see the shape of words, they can see the animals there.
Tagrid: I try learning with my kids. So, start with the alphabet or numbers or colours. So I help my son. I like to help my son. When I help my kids they get more good, then good, then good.
Halime: Playgroups and libraries are great ways of going out and mixing with other children.
Tagrid: When they are in playgroup, they are with a bunch of other kids, and they sing and sing, and make stories and everything. Sometimes go to the park and play. If raining I take him to a jumping castle or jungle gym or something. And I love my kids. Yeah, I love them much.