A parenting tool first developed to help Christchurch’s quake-stressed parents find quick, fun ways to spend time with their children is now a free app.
The Tiny Adventures app for smart phones has been launched in Christchurch today after demand saw developers struggle to keep up with demand for the tool, which began as a set of oversized playing cards.
More than 17,000 packs of the initial Tiny Adventures cards have been given over the past six months after being developed as a partnership between SKIP (Strategies with Kids, Information for Parents) and All Right – a Christchurch wellbeing campaign run by the Canterbury District Health Board and Mental Health Foundation.
All Right manager Sue Turner says the Tiny Adventures concept was developed in response to All Right research showing parents were under pressure in Canterbury.
“Our research found that parents are among those hit hardest by the stressors associated with the earthquakes,” said Turner. “They not only have children to look after, but have property issues to deal with (from finding somewhere to live to managing repairs and insurance issues) and can have older parents to look after as well.”
The cards – now an app – offer ideas for games and quick, fun activities for parents and children that can take anywhere from one minute to an hour including “bouncy ballon fun”, arts and crafts and “jokey journeys”.
Anna Mowat, SKIP Community Coordinator says SKIP has funded the development of the app to enable all New Zealand parents to have access to Tiny Adventures, for free.
Mowat and Turner see the free app for the rest of New Zealand can be seen in a small way Cantabrians giving back to for all the support they have received from the rest of the country.
The Tiny Adventures App can be downloaded for free from the App Store for Apple devices and Google Play for Android.
