Get Set for Life

The first five years are pivotal in the development of a child's ability to learn and to create, to love and to trust, to communicate and to develop a strong sense of self. How we care for our children during these years has a lasting impact on how productive, resilient, compassionate and confident they will be as adults. We have joined forces to use the science and theory of child development to bring you practical ways to support your child's healthy development.

Get Set For Life is a national public education campaign created by Kids CBC, Invest in Kids, Canadian Living and Coup de pouce magazines. Get Set for Life is generously supported by Unilever Canada, makers of Lipton and Sunlight products.

To help guide you in your daily interactions with your child, the experts at Invest in Kids have developed Comfort, Play & Teach: A Positive Approach to Parenting™ - the latest in child development research translated for you into useful, friendly, everyday parenting ideas.

With the help of the animated Zap Family, Get Set for Life brings you these Comfort, Play and Teach ideas, along with other helpful parenting information, in several ways:

Kids' CBC is proud to work in partnership with the Get Set for Life national campaign. Kids' CBC features entertaining, educational television programming that encourages preschoolers to be creative and optimistic, solve problems, get along with others and, above all, have fun! Between shows, the hosts on Kids' CBC model behaviour and develop a positive relationship with children that encourages them to face life with enthusiasm and confidence. Kids' CBC is all about letting children take the lead and explore their world, while feeling secure and confident enough to do so.

Kids' CBC airs weekdays from 7-noon, Saturdays from 6-noon, and Sundays from 6am-8am.

Canadian Living and Coup de Pouce are pleased to be a founding partner and the print media sponsors for Get Set for Life. With a combined monthly audience of almost 6 million readers, the magazines help bring the Get Set for Life message to parents across Canada. In addition to running ads promoting Get Set for Life, Canadian Living and Coup de Pouce work with Invest in Kids to create the “Comfort, Play & Teach” booklets, distributed in all subscriber copies each October. Based on Comfort, Play & Teach: A Positive Approach to Parenting™, the booklets explore a different stage of a child's development and offer parents various activities to incorporate into their daily routines with their baby, toddler or pre-schooler. It's all part of the commitment Canadian Living and Coup de Pouce bring to providing the latest parenting information for their readers.

Get Set for Life and Sponsor Activities - Unilever Canada, makers of Lipton and Sunlight products believes in supporting and helping parents. The Lipton and Sunlight brands help to reach parents by including Get Set For Life parenting messaging on their packaging and in their marketing activities. In addition, the Unilever Canada Foundation supports the production of the “Get Set For Life Welcome to Parenting” box. This unique tool, developed by the experts at Invest in Kids, provides useful information to parents of babies 0-18 months to support them in their new role. In 2003, 10,000 boxes were distributed to new parents who might not otherwise have had easy or affordable access to this type of information. These boxes were distributed by front line social service professionals working at family-oriented agencies and organizations across Canada. Due to the success of the program, Unilever will support the production of an additional 25,000 boxes.

Get Set for Life Educational Materials "Parenting with the Zap Family Video and Guidebook" and "Parenting with the Zap Family Parent Education Package" highlight everyday family situation and provide parents with strategies to deal with them effectively.

February, 2004