Kiwi Crate (from parent company KiwiCo) is a subscription box for children ages 5-8. It arrives every month with all the materials and instructions needed to complete 2-3 crafts centered around a theme, plus additional materials to help educate young learners!
KiwiCo offers boxes for different age groups: Cricket Crate is for 24-36-month-olds, Koala Crate is for 3-4-year-olds, Kiwi Crate is for 5-8-year-olds, and Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate are for 9-16+-year-olds. There really is something for every age with this company.
This review is of the $19.95 a month Kiwi Crate box, for 5-8-year-olds.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
About Kiwi Crate
The Subscription Box: Kiwi Crate
The Cost: $19.95 per month + free shipping
BLACK FRIDAY DEAL: Save 60% off your first month! No coupon required, just use this link
The Products: Crafts and DIY projects for kids, with supplemental learning kits, booklets, and activities. Crates are filled with materials and inspiration to encourage creativity and curiosity. Projects cover a number of developmental areas through art, science, and imaginative play.
Ships to: U.S. for free, Canada for $6.95 per month
Kiwi Crate November 2018 "Disk Launchers" Review
The theme for this month was Disk Launchers. This was the included booklet that showed us the various activities in our crate and provided instructions. The pictures are very clear- detailed and in color- and I like that they always provide a materials list for everything that should be in your crate.
On the back of the booklet was our sticker for this month’s project and their social media links.
This is the little sticker chart that we received in our first Kiwi Crate along with our welcome note. This time we got to add our Disk Launcher sticker after we completed our projects.
Each month you get a Kiwi Explore! magazine that goes along with your crate’s theme. There is a letter from Steve the Kiwi and a little story to go along with the theme starring some cute characters. This month the gang learns about inertia!
The rest of the magazine is filled with additional activities and information about inertia in everyday life.
They also included a recipe for oatmeal energy balls and recommended a few books for us to read.
This month we got to make our very own disk launcher and our first step was to set out all of our materials. They actually included enough materials for us to make two of them which was great because my daughter got to make hers mostly on her own while I made the other.
The first thing we did was place the orange foam ring sticker around our clear plastic tube and then slid it into the wooden base. Then we adhered it to the wooden piece and removed the plastic tube.
Next, we added the little wooden pieces to the base and wound a rubber band around the ends to secure them.
Then we added a foam rectangle sticker to our base and topped it with a wooden rectangle sticker.
Then we stuck the whole piece to the yellow piece of foam and slid our wooden triangle pin into place and secured it by wrapping another rubber band around the ends. We then placed our clear plastic tube back in the center and loaded it up with the tiny wooden disks they gave us. I was so impressed that my daughter (four) was pretty much able to make the launcher all by herself other than some help with the rubber bands.
I actually forgot this step until later, but they included this little orange foam block for us to place at the end so that our pin couldn't slide back out too far. It definitely helped once I realized it was missing and added it!
Our disks actually launched pretty far and once my daughter got the hang of it, she was able to control it a bit more.
I love how many useful tips they give along the way to ensure that you are putting everything together properly. I also like that they had this little engineering blurb that explains the science behind what is happening!
Now that we had our disk launcher, we were able to create some clay obstacles for them using our air dry clay. They gave us red, yellow, and blue and provided a lot of different ideas and methods for creating obstacles.
I chose to try their twisting method to create a little arch for mine to pass through and my daughter decided to make the same. Here are all of our little obstacles.
The kids both had fun playing with the clay which was super malleable and we had to leave it out to dry overnight before we could play the suggested game ideas, but fortunately, they included some other great games for in the meantime.
We received this nice long target sheet for our first game, Curling. We had to use some boxes to hold the ends down since it came rolled up, but the disks actually slid across the sheet nicely. Not to brag, but I did land in the 50 on the first try. Yay!
They also suggested setting the disks up in a row (and then lining them with books) so that we could do a little physics experiment.
We also received these little foam cylinders to set up like a bowling game. The kids loved this one!
They even included some extra stickers which will be great in case our launchers happen to get a little loose!
Verdict: We really enjoyed making our disk launchers with Kiwi Crate this month! I love that they include everything you need and make it so easy that my four-year-old was able to make her own launcher with some simple guidance from me. I found that since she understood how it worked and was put together, she enjoyed playing with it more than some of our other creations and had a lot more patience if her pin accidentally came out. I could see how much an older kid would really enjoy this activity since it will be even easier for them and they could focus more on the skills for each of the included games. Which was another thing I loved about this- that they included a fun and practical way to use our launchers! This crate was a great value for $19.95 plus free shipping!
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? It is possible you might get this crate, but it is not a guarantee. From KiwiCo:
Crates are assigned each month based on availability and your crate history - not all subscribers receive the same theme each month.
BLACK FRIDAY DEAL: Save 60% off your first month! No coupon required, just use this link
Coupon – Save 40% off your first month! No coupon required, just use this link!
Check out all of our Kiwi Crate reviews and more boxes for ages 5-8 in the Kids Subscription Box Directory!
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What do you think of Kiwi Crate?
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