Big Ideas is a 1993 TV movie, touted as From the Producers of Blue Heelers.
His next door neighbor has an antipathy to the Kovaks, at least partly because of their nationality, and runs a spiteful campaign against the boy, resulting in confiscation of his compost bins, and other harassment.His widowed mother is handicapped by her inability to recognize the Latin alphabet presumably she can read Cyrillic perfectly, and is too embarrassed to seek help, so is forced to accept piecework, sewing at slave wages. Financial relief comes in the form of Sam Stevens, who recognizes the boys ingenuity and offers him a contract to invent a chicken feeder. Sam gives Jimmy some valuable lessons in planning and time management. ........
Source: Wikipedia