A while a back I wrote about an innovative parenting product called Kaboost! This is a new spin on the a child’s booster seat that I love - I only wish it was around when my kids were that small. Instead of raising the child, it raises the chair. In effect, it makes little kids feel like big kids, and makes clean up a lot easier for mom too.

Here is an amusing little video that demonstrates the Kaboost:

What do you think?

How to Clean Drinking Straws

How many times have you tossed one of your kids favorite drinking straws because their was an unknown something growing inside? Or even worse, the straws that come with reusable sippy cups and Thermos containers because they sat, well, just a wee bit too long?

Of all parenting tips, this one is so obvious, it just makes me want to hit my head against a wall for not thinking of it myself.

Two words:

Pipe Cleaners

Yep, those colorful crafty things that kids love to use. Perfect for cleaning drinking straws.

Thanks to Asha at Parent Hacks for another one of her awesome parenting tips!

Each and every day I come across some great parenting tips across the internet. And I always think that I should share these great ideas with all of you. Then something else captures my interest and onward I click.

But not today. Today I was bound and determined to share some excellent parenting tips and here they are!

• Organize your coupons - I always clip coupons, after all saving money is a good thing. But filing them away is a problem. I find coupons in the bottom of my handbag, crumpled in my pocket, int the kitchen drawer - you get the idea. Well, the folks at TipNut have put together a comprehensive list of ways to organize my coupon mess. No more of these regrets at the store - I just know I have a coupon for that …. somewhere!
• It is not often that you find two great things in one place. Asha Dornfest, of Parent Hacks fame, has written an informative guest post at Zen Habits. Asha’s post offers up a list of 20 Top Parent Hacks with links to the full posts. There is a parenting tip here for everyone.
• Boogiemum brings to light a potential lead danger lurking in all of our homes: the dishes in our kitchens. Yes the very ones that we eat dinner off of daily. Apparently many ceramics and their glazes can contain lead. What next?
• Jennifer at De-Clutter It! gives us some tips for more efficient freezing. No, I don’t mean us freezing, I mean the stuff we put in our freezers - how to make more efficient use of the limited freezer space that we have.

Why raise the child when you can raise the chair? Here is a parenting tip that you won’t want to miss - Kaboost is a new spin on the old booster.

When children graduate from the high chair, they are usually not tall enough to sit in a regular “adult” size chair. When I was a kid, my parents solved this problem with a thick stack of phone books - eat dinner, make a phone call ….., I digress.

Kaboost vs. the “old fashioned” booster

Times changed and the booster seat became a common addition to households with toddlers. I found these booster seats to be a necessary evil. The booster itself was difficult to clean (think sticky fingers, messy spills, and crumbs - lots of crumbs). Also, the booster was a space hog. If you had a small kitchen or dining area, then seating was limited. If you had company over you would have to remove the booster to accommodate an adult (and you would have to make profuse apologies for the muck that you just knew was lurking under the seat).

Kaboost elimates this issue. By raising the whole chair, clean up is easy - no little crevices to deal with. The weight limit for Kaboost is a hefty 300 pounds, so many adults will be able to use the seat in pinch, without having to remove Kaboost first. (They will be sitting a bit higher up though. )

Kaboost makes toddlers feel like “big kids”

And then - the booster seat wars. This happens when the child decides he is too old for a booster and you know better. My kids were smart and removed the booster seat every chance they got creating an obstacle course on the kitchen floor.

With Kaboost, kids are actually sitting in the grown up chair. So they will probably forget that they are being “boosterized” (like that word?). And while Kaboost is easy for adults to set up, it is hard for little kids to remove - no more obstacle course.

Traveling with Kaboost

Remeber lugging around booster seats to grandma’s house or on vacation? Don’t remind me! Unlike traditional boosters - Kaboost is easy to travel with. It folds up easily, into a lightweigt package that won’t take too much luggage space.

Okay, what’s the downside of Kaboost? I can only see just one - no seatbelt. The youngest and wiggliest booster users will probably still need their traditional boosters if they need to be buckled in.

For more information about Kaboost visit Kaboost.com.

I previously reviewed a nifty little product called Days Ago. It is basically a little digital counter that counts days. You attach this gadget to stuff in your fridge - like leftovers, open jars of sauce or salsa, baby food, formula, you name it.

Days Ago has always come in two varieties - one that attaches via a magnet (for metal lids and containers) and one that attaches with a suction cup (for glass and plastic).

Well, now Days Ago is offering a third option - The Band. This model comes with two bands, a three inch band and a six inch band that can wrap around bigger or odd shaped items. Very practical.

Since my review, I have been using Days Ago quite a bit. In fact, I had a jar of olive tapenade - a remnant of a long ago dinner party, tucked away in the back corner of my fridge. Thanks to Days Ago I discovered that it was approaching the 90 day mark - yuck. I am now an even bigger fan!