Raising Children
Two series of 10 x 24 mins
100+ short form clips on website and app
The Raising Children content has been made by Raising Children Media Ltd – a separate company to Homegrown TV. It was also set up by Jude Dobson (Homegrown company director) with the express purpose of putting this particular project together with Government, NGO and philanthropic partners for a New Zealand parents.
The collective vision was to work together to make a comprehensive audio-visual multi-platform resource for parents (and providers of services to them) on what it takes to raise a child. It covers the everyday stuff with solid research behind the advice. All content was checked by a multi-disciplinary Advisory Board.
The content (10 x half hours) originally played on TVNZ 7 in 2011, covering the under-fives. A free DVD was also given to every first time parent in NZ via their Well Child / Tamariki Ora health care provider for the following three years.
By 2015 the existing library was completely overhauled and 20 half hour episodes were produced covering newborn to age ten. It played at 4pm and 8pm on TVNZ Heartland.
100+ short form (sub 5 min) clips created a website and app. While a free DVD again rolled out to first time parents for whom data was a roadblock to watching, it soon became only available online.
The goal is to get quality information to parents in bite sized chunks. Content areas vary from sleeping and eating, health and well-being and early learning, to family food ideas, being active, general developmental information, and the parenting challenges of the age. There’s also a fun series of child friendly science experiments, demonstrated by two 10 year old friends.
The on-screen experts are all highly regarded professionals in their fields and a well known New Zealanders also share their parenting tips along the way. It is a uniquely NZ resource.
The seven ages/stages covered: newborn, infant, crawler, toddler, two year old, pre-school and primary.