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!
This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
The Subscription Box: Surprise Ride
The Cost: $29.99 per month (free shipping), or $24.99 per month on 6- or 12-month subscriptions
LIMITED TIME DEAL: Use coupon code COOL10 to save $10 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: U.S. only
Good to Know: You can purchase past boxes in their shop while supplies last!
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This month's theme is all about Leonardo da Vinci! It's always a surprise with Surprise Ride!
This is the information card that details everything included.
Who Was Leonardo da Vinci! by Roberta Edwards - Value $4.22 on Amazon (retail price $5.99)
The "Who Was" series is awesome! My eight-year-old and I were excited to see another one in this box. They are great for his reading level. From Amazon:
Leonardo da Vinci was a gifted painter, talented musician, and dedicated scientist and inventor, designing flying machines, submarines, and even helicopters. Yet he had a hard time finishing things, a problem anyone can relate to. Only thirteen paintings are known to be his; as for the illustrated encyclopedia he intended to create, all that he left were thousands of disorganized notebook pages. Here is an accessible portrait of a fascinating man who lived at a fascinating time - Italy during the Renaissance.
Dippin' Chips - Value $0.64
For tortilla chips, these are pretty healthy. They tasted a little bland, though.
Surprise Ride always sends a couple of toys to go along with the theme, but this month I'm kinda stumped! They have been including rubber bracelets lately as one of the "toys," which my kids are not that excited about. But the paratrooper? They have had this kind of toy before, and they are fun, but what does it have to do with da Vinci?
Surprise Ride has started including these huge instruction cards! Every step is illustrated with a photo, which is great.
Our first craft was to construct a propeller car! This is definitely a da Vinci inspired creation. These were the supplies that were included. Nothing else was needed from home.
This is our completed car! Despite the instructions, we got a little confused, and our end product kept falling over to the side. So, we improvised and put in supportive beams, just as da Vinci would have wanted. It moved pretty slowly, probably due to the added weight, but it moved!
This is the instruction card for our second project, which was to create a reproduction of the Mona Lisa using an art technique known as quilling.
These are the supplies that were included, and again, we needed nothing additional from home.
So, it turns out quilling is actually pretty hard. My son got frustrated and gave up at this point. Quilling is a technique by which you take long strips of paper and twist them around a little tool to make a scroll. You then glue the scrolls to the paper, but you can tighten or loosen the scroll, or mash it into different shapes. It was nice for him to learn the technique, but it was too exacting and time-consuming for him to see it through to completion.
Verdict: Surprise Ride is usually great, but this month was a little bit of a mixed bag. I think my son was most excited about the book, oddly enough. We were both happy that the car turned out great, even after a rocky start. I was happy my son was exposed to a new art technique, but he didn't really enjoy it. He always enjoys the little toy paratroopers, though. Surprise Ride is living up to its name, I guess!
What do you think of Surprise Ride?
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