You can't buy it in a local store, on Amazon.com or eBay. And you will become a member of a special community of great people. It's a two-for-the-price-of-one deal. Even if you don't have money to get the product itself, consider supporting an aspiring entrepreneur (very often your fellow mom) with a $1 pledge.
Take a look at some of the projects that are currently active on Kickstarter.
Q's Race to the Top: The EQtainment Game & Storybook
The project creator, Sofia Dickens, is a mom of three, and has created the board game to help the children improve their social skills. In "Q's Race to the Top," children can help Q race to the top of his tree house by answering questions and performing fun actions. The questions are designed to promote feeling identification and verbalization, manners, social skills, creative thinking, balance and coordination. Sofia started by organizing a team of moms from all parts of the country to test the concept with their kids for a year, and the response was awesome. Now it's your chance to try it.
You probably didn’t know this, but our society has a huge problem: a lack of wearable dinosaurs. The founders of Archaix Laboratories are solving it on Kickstarter by offering their backers breathable functional shoes looking like dinosaur heads. The cool part? You can pre-order them for the whole family. I truly enjoyed watching their video. An elastic band holds the shoe on your foot like a typical slip-on, while three Velcro straps provide additional support, so you will not lose your "horny" shoes while running after your kid.
The next product is for parents of babies and toddlers. Lock-On Table Tray is a tray/bowl system that locks to tables, making family meals with your baby, toddler or preschooler mess-free and more enjoyable. This is the second product of Bambinos. The first one, a Tiny Table Tray, was a hit and generated lots of great feedback from parents and publicity in the top media: The Today Show, The Huffington Post, Parents Magazine, CNN Money and ABC World News among others. The new tray is lighter and smaller, so you can take it with you to a restaurant or on a family trip. BPA and phthalate free, dishwasher safe, for kids 6-plus months. And you can get it on Kickstarter for only $22.
TROBO the Storytelling Robot is a huggable talking plush robot and interactive storytelling app to get kids excited about science in the world around them. The project, created by two dads, raised more than $20,000 in less than 48 hours of being on Kickstarter. Looks like they got tired of their kids' curiosity and designed a cuddly companion to help them. The TROBO plush is soft enough for the child to sleep with and is machine washable. Besides the toy, you will receive five colorful storybooks and get to vote on the topics for next ones. TROBO can read the stories to the child before the child can read on their own. The interactive puzzles every few pages encourage repeat play and reinforce the topics being taught. Parents can input their child's name into the stories, so the child is the star of the story, and they get to go on adventures with TROBO.
Anne Moutray Arndt, a mother of two boys from Colorado, has started a Kickstarter campaign to help children overcome nightmares and empower them to take charge of their minds and imaginations. Fluff, The Dream Owl is a book and plush owl.This project was conceived and inspired by her 6-year-old son Quinn, who suffered from nightmares for a couple of years and was often scared to go to sleep at night because of them. Now, the mother-son team hopes to bring the Dream Owl to life and to follow up with new books that would empower kids and teach them about kindness, relationships, expressing their feelings and overcoming different fears.