Surprise Ride is a monthly subscription service for kids ages 6-11 that sends toys, activities, and all kinds of goodies curated around a monthly theme. This is the perfect age range for my kids, and they love it!
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The Subscription Box: Surprise Ride
The Cost: $29.99 per month (free shipping), or $24.99 per month on 6- or 12-month subscriptions
COUPON: Use code BESTGIFT5 to save $5 off your first month
OR
use coupon code SIX15 to save up to $15 off a 6-month subscription (regularly $155.94)!
The Products: A variety of toys, activities, and other treats for kids centered around a theme
Ships to: US only
Good to Know: You can purchase past boxes in their shop while supplies last!
Check out all of our Surprise Ride reviews and the Kids Subscription Box Directory!
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This month's theme is all about MARS! Mars is such a wonderful, iconic source of wonder and imagination!
This is the information card that details everything included.
National Geographic Readers: Mars - Value $3.99
The picture on the front of this book totally captured my son's imagination, and he actually enjoyed reading about Mars and learning about the rover. Thank you, National Geographic! And good call, Surprise Ride!
Astronaut Cinnamon Apple Wedges - Value $5.10
This is the first time we've had astronaut food that wasn't ice cream. These were super tasty! My sons both loved them, and I also tried one even though they do have added sugar. I like that the ingredient list is "apples, sugar, cinnamon."
Surprise Ride always sends a couple of toys to go along with the theme. This month's toys are a little underwhelming considering the theme. To me, they don't have to be really high-end toys, I just think they should be something that encourages play. A bracelet does not encourage play with my kids. The alien is cute, but not super play-tastic or anything.
The space sand they sent is an entirely different story. My son and I both got a little obsessed with it, and we even drew in Daddy and big brother with our fascination. These were the supplies they sent to play with the sand (the first of this month's two "activities").
The space sand is supposedly just like the sand on Mars: water-repellant. You can see here that water just beads up on the surface of the sand. It doesn't sink down like water does in regular sand.
This is what happened when we added the sand to the beaker of water. Dry sand is floating on top of water. There's something you don't see every day!
When we kept adding sand, it finally sank, but it's so water-resistant that it just formed a little dry column in the water. So different!
Eventually we had to stop messing with the space sand and work on our other activity. These are all the supplies that were needed to build our own alien, except for a little water.
Here's my son's completed Martian! THREE HEADS! This was a really unusual craft - we've never done anything quite like it before. The things that look like styrofoam peanuts are actually made of corn. They're kind of like flavorless cheese puffs. You can wet them and stick them together, and they stay stuck! The other fun part of this story is that our lab ate all the leftover pieces! I love a handy clean-up!
Verdict: Surprise Ride is so fun! This month, the toys were a little bit of a dud, but the activities were positively engrossing. The book and snack were also both awesome! Surprise Ride always picks such fun themes, and they're always a total surprise. We love that!
What do you think of Surprise Ride?
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