Kiwi Crate June 2015 Review

Kiwi Crate
Cost: $19.99 monthly
Shipping:  United States and Canada
Coupon:  Click Here for 50% off your first month for any Kiwi Crate line box (Koala, Tinker, Kiwi and Doodle) using my referral link.  The discount is automatic after clicking, bringing your crate down to $10.00 for the first month.  This will start a subscription so you will need to cancel if you wish to discontinue.  You can also pause in your account settings.

–     Every month around the 15th my daughter’s eyes light up with excitement.  She knows the green crate that has just arrived in the mail is something special just for her, and she and mom are about to have some fun.  Kiwi Crate is a once a month subscription service for kids ages 3-7 that provides themed arts and craft with a strong education experience.  Kiwi offers many boxes for different ages and my referral link above works for every one of them.  My daughter B has been working on Kiwi Crates for about two years now and she adores them.  We also subscribe to Koala Crate which is specifically aimed for 3 and 4-year-olds.  You can see the June Koala Crate Review HERE or a past Kiwi Crate Review HERE.  You can also search through all of my Kiwi or Koala Crate Reviews by using the above search bar or my Subscription Box List at the top of the page.

Each Kiwi Crate also comes with explore! magazine. There are always extra games, crafts and idea in explore! and of course B loves the colorful pictures.

– The June theme is Spheres and their Peers.  It included all of the above materials. Kiwi Crate impressed me this month beyond words.  They send out surveys asking what their subscribers would like to see changed.  My one minor complaint to them was to try to make their crafts a little less messy.  I was thrilled to see a mess mat included with this box and a jar to shake up your color dye that had a lid.

–      I try not to show too much print from their instruction booklets but this will at least give you an idea of what they send.  Each craft comes with its own instruction booklet and a detailed outline of all materials needed.  Typically there are very helpful  pictures.  B and I completed this at about eleven at night as she was having a bout of insomnia.  I made a few mistakes this month but I think our projects still turned out well.

Project One:  My Tangram Game

–     B loved this project and I appreciated its educational value.  We first colored all of the wooden shapes and made designs with the included white crayon. I misread the step on how to make the color so our blocks are a little lighter than they should be.  I am not sure who had more fun with the cards, me or B.  There were eight picture cards in bright vibrant colors.  We went over shapes, colors and a little bit of reading.

–    Here is a closer look at our finished blocks.  Kiwi gave you a choice of pink or blue blocks, we went ahead and did both variations.

Project Two:  My Bubble Shaper

–     When I first saw this project I was beyond excited.  My kids love bubbles!  The bubble concentrate bottle was pretty large.  B and I started on this project about midnight and unfortunately I misread again (mommy needed to go to bed) and I messed up the concentrate.  I went ahead and used the bubbles we had at the house to outline our bubble shapes and we had a good time.

Value:  We are a Kiwi family and will continue to subscribe for years to come.  I purchase a year of Kiwi for my daughter as a holiday gift.  This year I will be adding Koala.  My 9-year-old wants to give Tinker a try next month as well.  Your first box is only $10 if you click HERE. This will start a subscription but you can go in to your account to pause or cancel.  I have never had a problem stopping or restarting my subscription.

Let me know what you think!

-J

Kiwi Crate May 2015 “Interesting Insects” Review

Kiwi Crate
Cost: $19.99 monthly
Shipping:  United States and Canada
Coupon:  Click Here for 50% off your first month using my referral link.  The discount is automatic after clicking, bringing your crate down to $10.00 for the first month.  This will start a subscription so you will need to cancel if you wish to discontinue.  You can also pause in your account settings.

–     Every month around the 15th my daughter’s eyes light up with excitement.  She knows the green crate that has just arrived in the mail is something special just for her, and she and mom are about to have some fun.  Kiwi Crate is a once a month subscription service for kids ages 3-7 that provides themed arts and craft with a strong education experience.  Kiwi offers many boxes for different ages and my referral link above works for every one of them.  My daughter B has been working on Kiwi Crates for about two years now and she adores them.  We have also been using Koala Crate which is specifically aimed for 3 and 4-year-olds.  You can see a Koala Crate Review HERE or another Kiwi Crate Review HERE.  You can also search through all of my Kiwi or Koala Crate Reviews by using the above search bar.

Project One:  My Bug Tic-Tac-Toe

–     My bug tic-tac-toe instructed users to model the clay into lady bugs and bumble bees. One great feature of Kiwi is the picture direction books that walk users step by step through each project. At first glance I was really excited about this project and as soon as B saw the clay she was going crazy to use it.  That was the biggest problem, B did not want to make bugs she wanted to do her own thing with the clay.  I gave her a piece and took out her play doh so she could do what she wanted with the play doh  while I sculpted all of the bugs.  It took a bit of time.  She did put on the eyes and stickers but this was BIG on the parent involvement.  Not all projects are this way though, as you will see with the next project.  My daughter was very proud of her/moms bugs in the end.  They did come out pretty cute.  I appreciated that Kiwi also included paper bugs (the butterflies and caterpillars pictured above) to use instead of your clay bugs.

Our finished “bugs” Tic-Tac-Toe board

Project Two:  My Dragonflyers

–    This project was a little easier on the parent assistance scale.  The best feature was the color changing markers.  At first we could not understand why the marker caps differed in color from the marker body.  I actually wondered if Kiwi was trying to get rid of mixed match markers (sorry Kiwi).  Once I flipped the marker package over and read the title of the markers, it all made sense.  We had so much fun using the white marker to change and smear the colors so the dragonfly wings looked a bit like stained glass.

–    B had no problem coloring with her marker, although she does have a hard time staying focused.  We always do it together.  Parents will have to assemble the final product for younger kids.  Our biggest concern was B could not fly this on her own.  She just was not strong enough to pump the green container hard enough.  The white plug that fits into the container did not seem tight enough and it was really hit or miss with this project.  We still had a great time completing it together.

–   I truly think that Kiwi Crate is a great way each month to have fun and instant projects to complete with your kids.  I keep thinking of all the single parents that work and really have little time on the weekends to do fun things with their kids, or not single parents who are just so time crunched.  I love Kiwi because it save me time from having to purchase all the contents of crafts, it saves me money and honestly they are just so much more creative than I am.

–   Each month subscribers also receive Explore magazine which includes activities and another art project.

–    B’s favorite part is the sticker on the back of the explanation page.  Every month she wears that badge with pride.

–    If you are interested in joining the Kiwi Crate family you can use my link to receive your first crate for only $10.  That is half of what a normal month costs. This will start a subscription but my guess is you will love their crates and want to keep going.  If not you can pause or cancel your subscription in your account settings.  I have paused some months in the past without any problems.

–J

Kiwi Crate January 2015 “Let’s Bake” Review and Coupon

Photo Credit: Kiwi Crate

Disclosure:  This post contains referral links.  Qualitytimes7 pays for this subscription and the reviews are all my own.

Kiwi Crate
Cost: $19.99 monthly
Shipping:  United States and Canada
Coupon:  Click Here for 50% off your first month using my referral link.  It is automatic bringing your crate down to $10.00 for the first month.  This will start a subscription so you will need to cancel if you wish to discontinue.

–     Our mailman handed us personally our Kiwi Crate and Koala crate on 1/17 and as usual everything was packed securely without any visible signs of distress.

–     Kiwi also provides a monthly reading list on their monthly blog to go along with each activity.

–    When you open the box there is Kiwi each month ready to go on an adventure.  The second picture is exactly what my box looks like when opened.

–

–     As I begin to lift off layers, I found explore magazine which offers several other activities for you and your little one to do after your crafts are over and I also found our first activity:  My Frosted Cake.

–     One of the best features of this crate is the amazing picture directions that walk you step by step through the activity.

–     The second activity (which we chose to do first)  was my chef dress-up.

B modeling her pre-colored hat and apron.

–     I loved this activity probably even more than B did.  We were baking bread when our Kiwi Crate arrived, so while the dough was rising we colored our apron and hat.

–     It was very easy and did not require much parental involvement or mess.  Kiwi provided metallic crayons and baking stickers.  You affix the sticker and then color over it and around.  B had a blast but did not want to take another photo.  You can see the pink grape sticker above.  I wrote B’s name on her chefs hat and we colored all around it.

Talk about great timing 🙂

–     We made the cake today and she was asking from the moment I woke up to start it.  I did have to remind her the frosting was not real.  I have two hints for you all…first, you do not need to make a real cake.  My husband and I were a bit confused at first.  Kiwi provides the sponges below with a mess mat and the frosting bags and decorations.  My second hint is that the stickers (the white tabs for the bottom of the sponge) do not stick well, and you could use more than one on each piece.  On one hand it was hard because the sponges moved for us, but on the other I was able to much easier frost the sides with mobility.  It really is your choice.

–     Our cake is now drying for 24 hours and then it should be good to play with.  The frosting is a clay but it sure looks real.

–     Overall, I think this was one of the best Kiwi Crates yet.  The timing was perfect, and my daughter had so much fun.  As usual, the craft supplies were convenient and of great quality.  I purchased a year for B during the holidays and truly recommend this for anyone that wants to spend quality time with the loved ones.

What do you think of Kiwi Crate?

Kiwi Crate October 2014 Review

Kiwi Crate

Cost: $19.95 monthly or less with longer subscription

Shipping: United States (free) and Canada ($6.95 added)

Coupon:  Click on my link to receive $10.00 off your first kit.   They are running a code as well but I am not sure if these will stack. Type in code:  BDAYSUB at checkout to get 30% off your first month.

Sibling Add On Available: ” No Fight Crate” ($9.95 extra).

October Theme:  Wild Wild West

—B is always incredibly excited when she sees our Kiwi Crate arrive.  We have subscribed to Kiwi since she was two (she is now four) and she knows that this is her special box.  Kiwi was actually my first subscription box and what led to this blog.  As a working mother I cannot express how wonderful it is to not have to shop for amazing art projects and I am always pleased with not only the themes but the end products. We really have such wonderful “quality” time when we put together our monthly kits.

Everything is packed neatly under a paper insert that outlines your crafts.

—-Kiwi consistently arrives around the 14th of the month.  I have never had a delay or a damaged product.  I have paused my subscription in the past and just started again with no hassle.  Inside each box you will find a copy of explore! magazine, instructions for two to three crafts and all the supplies necessary for completion.

explore! magazine for kids

• B is still a little young to fully appreciate the magazine but we do look at it and practice our words.

Instruction booklets that tell you step by step how to complete each craft.

• I really appreciate the instruction booklets.  They definitely walk  you through each project with fun visuals and descriptions.

The box is full of all necessary supplies.

• I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to shop for all of these supplies.  Time, money and quality memories makes this subscription invaluable.

My very happy B with her new horse friend.

• We talked about cows, horses, and the wild west all night.  I am happy mommy with an even happier four year old.

Craft Two: My Cattle Roundup

This was quick and fun. I like how the craft leads to activity.

 What do you think of Kiwi?  For $10 off your first Kiwi crate click here.