Together with Hop! Media Group in Israel, the Bernard van Leer Foundation is proud to launch “Magic Moments”, a national campaign offering parents simple tools to transform routine time spent with their children into enjoyable bonding time that promotes child development.
Hop! Channel reaches 1.5 million homes in Israel – it is the country’s leading channel for pre-schoolers – and also has social media platforms catering to parents. It will show a series of 10 short films like this one, illustrating how everyday stressful experiences can be turned into moments of fun and enrichment:
Our Time Together
These docu-dramas focus on a young child’s point of view during different everyday routines, such as tidying up or waiting in line. They show how the parent and child remember that magic is possible as they together find a way to turn everyday chores to playful activities.
Each film portrays an aspect of the life of an Israeli family, presenting a diverse range of social economic groups, lifestyles and family structures. They include the Yadenko family, originally from Ethiopia; the Zayyadd family, religious Arabs; the Berman-Segalle family, including a gay male couple; and the Katsman family, a single mum and her daughter.
Each film’s message was informed by a team of consultants and advisors including experts in psychology, child development, behavioural economics and digital marketing, focus groups of parents and children, and a national survey among parents. Our research partner the Center for Educational Technology will conduct ongoing assessment and evaluation of the impact on parent behaviours and wellbeing.
Learning through Play
Also available for parents to watch online, and promoted through media and partners, is a series of 30 short videos in which experts explain aspects of the relationship between learning and play, and give practical tips on how parents can build bonds with their children while meeting their everyday challenges. Here is one example:
Activities for Our Time Together
Another series of 40 short videos focuses on various routine activities at different times of the day – such as walking to the kindergarten, shopping, eating dinner or taking a shower – and gives parents inspiration and ideas on how to turn these into meaningful moments for child development. Here is one example of learning through play while cooking:
The project’s steering board includes high-level representatives from the ministries of health and education and the Vice Chair for the country’s newly created Early Childhood Council in the Knesset, as well as experts from the field and academia.
The project is working with the ministries of health and education on using these tools in their work – for example, showing them in waiting rooms at medical facilities, or preschool teachers or well baby clinic nurses showing them directly to parents. Other potential distribution partners include child care operators, municipalities, community centres, museums, libraries, media and social media outlets and bloggers.
Read an article on the campaign on the Israeli news website Mako, and explore all the campaign’s content on the Hop! website. Finally, here is the theme song with English subtitles, especially written for the project by Noam Rotem, composed and performed by Ester Rada:
