3 Kickstarter projects that could transform parenting

Parents constantly have to problem-solve; it can seem like there’s a potential crisis every hour. Most parents want to just quiet their kid and move on, but the inventors behind these three projects are using the problems they’ve faced to help other parents. Check out their amazing ideas:

The genius way to get picky eaters to dig in

Having a child who’s a picky eater makes every mealtime stressing. First, you spend time trying to think of a creative way to sneak some nutrients into something your kid will eat. Then, you spend the meal pleading and bribing to get your kid to actually eat it. And finally, you just give up. The inventor of Jungle Bowl is a mom who has been there done that, which is why she came up with a cleaver way to get kids to eat everything in front of them. They hide a little toy surprise at the bottom of this bowl that the child can get to only after eating his or her way through. Ah, the element of surprise. Works every time.

A book empowering kids with cancer

Every year, over 15,000 kids under the age of 19 are diagnosed with cancer. Going through treatment is exhausting and confusing for kids in many ways. The woman behind this project, Carole Folkert, wants to make just one aspect of cancer not as traumatic: hair loss. She wrote “The Legend of the Hair Fairies” about hair fairies who replace hair with hope. It turns losing hair into something positive, not sad. She saw first hand how her story helped Eva, a little girl close to her heart who was going through chemo when Folkert read her the book. If she reaches her funding goal, she’ll be able to give 1,000 books to kids for free.

A toy that creates more toys

This toy sharpens kids’ creativity and coding skills, just by using drinking straws. The Quirkbot is a microcontroller that kids can program on the computer to do anything. The inventors behind this project worked with groups of elementary schoolers to make sure it’s easy to use. Once programmed, kids can slide straws over the microcontroller’s little extensions and start building their own robots that can hula, crawl like a spider, run like a dog or something else entirely. The possibilities really are endless, and it’s all done with straws!