Kiwi Crate is a monthly craft and discovery box for children 3-12. They have recently expanded their options to boxes for specific ages or you can chose the regular one which is for all ages.  Kiwi crate is $19.95 a month but goes down with longer subscriptions.  I have seen plenty of deals out right now for them so I think you can even get lower pricing or free boxes if you search around. This month’s theme is Interesting Insects.  I always get the months box in the first little while of the next month so that’s why my posts are a bit late on these ones.

The theme this month is Science Of Color.  This is the first thing you see once you open the box and on the back is a sticker to mark your chart for which ones you’ve done and two figures to cut out and colour that are based on the theme.

As always there is Explore! magazine in the box.  It has a comic, drawing and colouring pages, extra projects and learning information to expand upon the theme and science behind it.

The first project of the month is My Color Separation Lab.  It rates medium on both the messiness scale and grownup involvement.  It uses discovering, creating, and exploring skills.  I don’t really understand this one.  You have to draw lines on paper with markers and then let them soak up water to find how they are on the color spectrum.  I’m hoping it makes more sense once we do it but for now even this adult is stumped.

The other project of the month is My Color Spin Art.  This one is high on the messiness scale and medium on grownup involvement.  Yay this one I get!  You use the big box everything comes in to make a spinner and then drop dots of paint onto the spinning disks to make patterns.  I think this one will be a lot of fun and Bug will love it.  I expect huge mess though so maybe this will be one for when we are camping and can do it outside on a picnic table.

The good thing about these projects is that there is some learning with them, not just crafting.  I’m not sure that Bug gets to much about the science but maybe she’s just absorbing things and will know them later.  We only have a few more months on this one and then I’ll have to decide if we should keep it, get one of their newer more age apporiate ones, or switch to something different.

Kiwi Crate is a monthly craft and discovery box for children 3-12. They have recently expanded their options to boxes for specific ages or you can chose the regular one which is for all ages.  Kiwi crate is $19.95 a month but goes down with longer subscriptions.  I have seen plenty of deals out right now for them so I think you can even get lower pricing or free boxes if you search around. This month’s theme is Interesting Insects.  I always get the months box in the first little while of the next month so that’s why my posts are a bit late on these ones.

The theme this month is Spheres And Their Peers.  This is the first thing you see once you open the box and on the back is a sticker to mark your chart for which ones you’ve done and two figures to cut out and colour that are based on the theme.

Project one this month is My Tangram Game.  It ranks high on the messiness scale and medium on grownup involvement.  It uses creating, discovering and fine moving skills.  With this one you have to make designs on wooden blocks with a crayon and then dye the blocks in the jar with the included colour tabs.  After that’s all dry you place your pieces on the included puzzle mats, trying to make them fit in the shaded areas.  Bug loves puzzles right now but this might be just a bit above her current skill or patience level.  She’ll enjoy the colour and dying parts though.

Next up this month is My Bubble Shapes.  This one is only medium on the messiness scale but high in grownup involvement.  It uses fine moving, discovering and exploring skills.  This one requires you to use straw and pipe cleaners to create bubble wands in various shapes.  You then dip them in the bubble solution and see what kind of shapes you get.  Instructions are included for four different shapes so you don;t have to try to guess how to make something beyond a triangle.  Bubbles are huge in our house, including indoor bath time blowing so if we can get past the time needed to make the wands, I predict this to be a hit.

As always there is Explore! magazine in the box.  It has a comic, drawing and colouring pages, extra projects and learning information to expand upon the theme and science behind it.

The good thing about these projects is that there is some learning with them, not just crafting.  I’m not sure that Bug gets to much about the science but maybe she’s just absorbing things and will know them later.  We only have a few more months on this one and then I’ll have to decide if we should keep it, get one of their newer more age apporiate ones, or switch to something different.