Dad's AI Starter Pack
Everything a dad needs to start, free. Five tools, five prompts, nothing to buy and nothing to install unless you want the app.
Consider this the toolbox you actually open — not the one in the garage with three mystery Allen keys.
The 5 essential free tools
General assistant
ChatGPT
Your all-rounder: meals, emails, homework help, almost anything.
Meal plans, emails, homework help.
Open ChatGPT (free to start) →General assistant
Claude
For longer, more careful writing: letters, notes, and feedback.
Long letters, college essay feedback.
Open Claude (free to start) →General assistant
Google Gemini
If your life already runs on Gmail and Google, this fits right in.
Planning with Gmail/Calendar.
Open Google Gemini (free to start) →Research
Perplexity
For research questions. It shows its sources, so you can check them.
College/scholarship research with sources.
Open Perplexity (free to start) →General assistant
Google Lens
Already on many phones. Point your camera at text, a plant, or a product to learn what it is.
Point a phone camera at text, plants, or products to learn more.
Open Google Lens (free to start) →Free to start. Paid upgrades exist on some of these; you do not need them for anything in this pack.
The 5 starter prompts
Tap one, hit the big Copy prompt button, paste it into any tool above, and fill in the [brackets].
Starter prompt
Plan a week of dinners
Seven weeknight dinners, one grocery list, and a budget you choose.
Open this prompt →Starter prompt
Write a polite teacher email
A short, respectful note about a grade, in under 150 words.
Open this prompt →Starter prompt
Explain the homework to me first
Understand it yourself, then guide your kid without doing it for them.
Open this prompt →Starter prompt
Tell a bedtime story starring your grandkid
A gentle five-minute story with Grandpa in a small funny role.
Open this prompt →Starter prompt
Get ready for a doctor visit
Ten plain-English questions worth asking, sorted by importance.
Open this prompt →New to all of this?
The beginner guide walks you through it step by step, in plain English, in about ten minutes.