A year or so ago my brother-in-law got the kids Kiwi Crate box subscriptions. They absolutely love them and look forward to doing them every month. I love that they’re educational, fun, and a great activity for us to do as a family. Any time we can do something that helps them learn while also being enjoyable that’s a total win for me! Since we’ve been doing them for over a year now I thought I’d do a Kiwi Crate review for you.
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There are different crates with varying degrees of difficulty depending on age. Currently Hudson (6) gets the Kiwi Crate, Parker (4) gets the Koala crate, and Everly (1) gets the Panda Crate. There are also crates for older kids/teens/even adults.
The Panda Crate (for ages 0-2 years) comes every other month, the Koala and Kiwi come monthly.
Some of my favorite things about them:
- Each box has a fun theme and has 2-3 activities that go along with that theme.
- Each box focus on some sort of S.T.E.A.M. aspect(s) – S.T.E.A.M. stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.
- Everything you need will be included in the box! If the project needs tape, glue, paint, thread, anything, it’ll be included for you. It’s so nice that you don’t have to hunt down supplies!
- There is a booklet with stories, games, and/or additional activities that go along with the theme
What comes in each box?
Everly’s is a little different since she’s a bit young for making crafts – her Panda Crate comes with several high quality educational toys that are age appropriate and some activities to go along with them.
For example, this box came with a beautiful, wooden ring stacking/matching set, a soft ribbon pull toy, and a wooden ball drop toy. Lots of great sensory, fine motor, color matching, and cause/effect activities!
The boys’ boxes (Koala Crate and Kiwi Crate) some with all the supplies needed to put together 2-3 fun activities.
Some themes we’ve had:
- Human body – Hudson made a stethoscope and some felt organs that attached to a huge poster of the human body
- Camping – this one was one of my favorites! The little campfire, backpack, and s’more set was the cutest thing!!
- Medieval – Parker built a castle and a catapult. This went perfectly along with what we learned in Cycle 2 of Classical Conversations and it was so fun to watch the boys make that connection!
- Space – we’ve actually had 2 space boxes so far. In one Hudson did a model of the solar system, in another he built a model of the moon rotating around the earth and them both rotating around the sun. Again this was something we’d been learning in Classical Conversations so it was very neat to use the Kiwi Crate activities to connect that learning.
- Polar Bears – Parker made bear gloves, bear ears, and two different types of snowballs
- Play time – one of Parker’s themes was kind of a playground theme. It didn’t have quite as many things that you build/make but it had a bunch of fun games that the boys loved
- Play doh – One of Parker’s first boxes was a DIY play doh activity
- Musical instruments – I think we’ve had two musical instrument boxes. One of our very first boxes (pictured above) had Hudson make a xylophone and then recently we had one where he made a guitar
- Grabber – This one was definitely one of Hudson’s top favorites! He got to make this working grabber and he played with it constantly (until unfortunately it got stepped on and broken)
- The rainforest. Parker made a butterfly puppet that turned from a cocoon to a butterfly and a tree that doubled as a rainstick.
- Color changing. One of Hudson’s boxes focused on color changing – things like chameleons, paint/material that changes color when hot or cold, etc.
- Mirrors and perspective. Hudson made a magic trick box that uses mirrors to the magic trick and a set of mirror glasses that he was supposed to us to assemble a puzzle
- Weather. Parker had one box that had him make a weather chart and a wind sock
- Spy kit – This was another one of Hudson’s favorites! He got to assemble a briefcase and then the kit came with invisible ink and some other spy accessories.
- Bug – This box was so sweet! Parker made a little lady bug pouch, wings, and headband. The box came with a fun game as well as a little kaleidoscope thing you look through
We’ve been getting them for over a year so we’ve had more than the ones listed here, but these were the ones I could remember/had pictures of to give you an idea of what the kits come with.
There have been a handful that were kind of duds – the kids weren’t that excited about them while we put them together and then didn’t continue to play with it after it was done. However, the majority have been huge hits and not only did they love assembling them they also continued to play with them frequently.
We are huge fans of our Kiwi Crate boxes! It’s a really fun activity to do together as a family, the kids (and the adults, to be honest) are learning some fun things
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