Did you know that you can order from Amazon and have it delivered to your house within two hours of placing the order? Seriously. I watched it happen earlier this week. My friend ordered groceries while we were on the phone in our respective homes, and the bags arrived about an hour after I got to her house. And it doesn’t stop there.
You can order dinners — pre-made or portioned ingredients — for a week and have it delivered directly to your home with recipe cards and cooking instructions included. You can even order coffee on your phone and pick it up in the drive-thru on your way to work. We live in a world of convenience at our fingertips like never before. A-mazing.
Well, I decided to get in on this convenience action to make my job as a parent a little easier. I did this by subscribing to Kiwi Crate.
Have you heard of Kiwi Crate? It is pre-made, portioned fun and STEM learning in a little green box. I first heard of the concept through an advertisement for a DIY hydraulic claw. What fun for my engineer husband to build with the kids! After more research, I found the company offers a diversity of interactive, creative crates suitable for different age groups. They even have crafty crates I can create with the kids.
fun + learning + quality time
SOLD.
So here’s how it works: The company offers four kinds of crates.
- Koala Crate: ages 3-4
- Kiwi Crate: ages 5-8
- Doodle Crate: ages 9-16+
- Tinker Crate: ages 9-16+
You can order on a recurring subscription basis or shop individual crates in the online store. Since I have a 2-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, I chose the Kiwi Crate to challenge my son. I also figured there would be tasks my 2 year old could do. The first crate we received and that I am reviewing today is the Arcade Claw with Pom Pom Prizes.
MY 100% HONEST {and unpaid}
REVIEW OF KIWI CRATE
After learning about Kiwi Crate, I was reminded of a wonderful birthday party where the host mom coordinated an array of educational activities. The kids made bubbles with dry ice, dug in a mound of dirt for dinosaur fossils, watched a homemade volcano spurt lava, witnessed the explosive effects of vinegar and baking soda combined in a bottle, and engaged in an all-out water balloon fight. All the while they were also unknowingly playing scientists — asking questions, developing hypotheses, experimenting, and reassessing. Curiosity and learning was palpable on their smiling little faces.
From that party — and now with Kiwi Crate — I second Einstein’s reasoning that play is the highest form of research. Children naturally learn and understand the world through sensory play. They ask themselves, “What is this? What happens when I do that? Can I make it happen again? Why won’t it work?” and then play to work out the solutions.
As much as I would love to host that type of party for my kids each month, I don’t often make time to brainstorm age-appropriate and fun projects and then gather all the supplies to actually do it. That’s where Kiwi Crate makes it easy. Each month, a new crate arrives in the mail {oh joy! who doesn’t love getting mail?!} containing all the necessary supplies to complete a hands-on project. There are also easy-to-follow instructions and a magazine with stories, coloring/drawing pages and additional project ideas enclosed. In our first box, we even received a free pair of kid’s scissors.
The first step in our project was to place stickers over the holes in the template. Stickers always kickstart my kids’ enthusiasm! My daughter helped place the stickers, and my son set the screws in place. I think the stickers are a rather ingenious way to help kids manage the project without much assistance.
My son was able to put most of the pieces together by listening to me read the instructions. Lots of the parts and instructions were color-coded, “Match a claw piece with the purple outline” and “add orange rings” so it was a good reinforcement of his preschool activities as well.
Would you check out my 2 year old twisting the nuts on below? Don’t you just love her chubby little fingers?!
And here we are with the finished product! Needless to say, my son was quite proud of his accomplishment and excited to put it to good use!
We lost some momentum after constructing the arcade claw. My son wasn’t wild about winding the yarn around and around to make the pom poms and tried to get me to do it for him. It turned out to be a lesson in perseverance and he got the job done. He also got to move on to one of his favorite activities: cutting with scissors {under adult supervision}!
I admit, I made the second pom pom for him. I also admit I messed up the directions and missed a claw arm, but it was easy enough to trace back and right my wrong. Lastly, I admit that I use the arcade claw to grab things off the floor, saving my back and knees. It’s a really handy toy!
And it was a terrific first project to build my son’s confidence and grow his love of learning. Now, he runs to the mailbox every day looking for that little green box!
So if you’re looking for an easy and effective way to incorporate creativity and science into your children’s learning, let Kiwi Crate do the work for you. The service may be more costly then buying supplies on your own, but the savings in time, effort and stress is well worth it — especially if you can fully enjoy the time with your kids!
YOU CAN SEE ALL THE DETAILS ON PRICING, CRATE OPTIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS HERE.
When we subscribed, we received a referral link that will give you $10 off your order and give us credit towards future crates. You’ll get a link, too, so if you like the service and tell your friends, you can earn credit toward your crates. Now go forth and add some creativity to your parenting the easy way! — v.
TRY KIWI CRATE TODAY
Subscription. Gift. Home School. Craft Time.
