Tadpole Crate, previously called “Cricket Crate”, is the toddler subscription box offering from KiwiCo, designed for hands-on learning and fun every month!
KiwiCo offers boxes for different age groups: Tadpole Crate is for 0-36 months, Koala Crate for ages 3-4, Kiwi Crate for ages 5-8, Atlas Crate for ages 6-11, and Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate are for ages 9-16 and up.
This review is of the $19.95 a month Tadpole Crate for kids ages 0-36 months.
This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Tadpole Crate
The Subscription Box: Tadpole Crate
The Cost: $19.95 a month + free shipping
LIMITED TIME DEAL: Save 60% off your first month! No coupon required, just use this link
ACTIVE DEAL: Save 40% off your first box! No coupon needed - just use this link.
The Products: 2-3 fun and developmentally appropriate projects, a magazine, online resources and a board book for you and your toddler!
Ships to: US
Tadpole Crate "Alphabet Play" November Box Review
My family was excited to review this month's, Tadpole Crate! KiwiCo's teaching methodology perfectly aligns with how my kids learn today. My son is in early pre-school and goes to a school focused on hands-on and project-based learning. Age-wise, he’s in between the Tadpole and Koala crates. His big sister, my 2nd-grader, was happy to assist her little brother with the projects.
This month’s theme is “Alphabet Play” where kids learn about letter and sound recognition through the simple and age-appropriate projects.
Tadpole Crate includes Wonder Magazine which is full of information, tips and fun activities related to the month’s theme.
The magazine highlights the activities and includes information on how to engage your children along with additional learning resources.
Wonder Magazine also includes additional DIY activities sometimes requiring supplies not included in the box. It’s a great way to continue the fun after the projects are complete.
This Tadpole Crate includes two fun and engaging projects: Alphabet Munch and Felt Letter Shapes. Alphabet Munch builds developmental skills including alphabet knowledge, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and problem-solving. Felt Letter Shapes focuses on letter-identification, problem-solving, fine motor skills and matching. Included are detailed instructions and everything needed for both projects.
Here are the materials for the Alphabet Munch project. It includes tokens, a bank to hold the tokens and a board book “Olive Gobbles the Alphabet”. Each token has a letter on one side and a food item on the other side.
Here are the materials for the Felt Letter Shapes project. It includes felt pieces to learn how letters are formed and an alphabet key that shows how the letters are built.
Let’s get started with Alphabet Munch!
In this activity, children have fun feeding Olive the frog by searching for particular letters or food items and putting the tokens in the bank. For more fun, families can follow along with the story “Olive Gobbles the Alphabets” and when Olive eats a letter, your child can find the matching token and feed it to the bank.
My son loved playing this game! I was surprised at how many letters he could identify when we’ve been primarily focused on learning colors and numbers.
Even though he could recognize a few letters, he much preferred to point out the food items. He could recognize the majority of the foods and loved feeding Olive the frog the food.
The next day, he wanted to play the game again. This time feeding Olive and joyfully making frog sounds. We will continue to play this game focusing on the letters as he’s able to identify more.
In this activity, your child can practice forming letters using the felt pieces and the alphabet key. This is also a fun way to practice letter identification.
My son could not yet grasp the concept of this activity. He got excited when I formed letters he recognized, like the letter ‘B’, but was otherwise was disinterested.
My daughter, on the other hand, had fun forming words and letters. The intention is to form one or two letters at a time. So, when she went to form whole words and phrases, she quickly ran out of felt pieces and lost interest.
My son will soon be learning to recognize all letters of the alphabet and how to form letters and write words. I’m sure we will find this activity useful in the future.
Tadpole Crate includes a board book every month that goes along with the theme of the box. In “Olive Gobbles the Alphabet”, Olive the frog is hungry for ABCs. We follow along with Olive throughout the day as she gobbles up the alphabet.
This is likely my son’s favorite tadpole board book. He keeps bringing it to me to read and loves mimicking Olive as she chomps down on the letters. He loves singing the alphabet and following along.
Verdict: This Tadpole Crate by KiwiCo was a lot of fun! The Alphabet Munch activity was developmentally appropriate for my son while we found the Felt Letter Shapes activity a bit advanced for him. Like other Tadpole crates, we identified skills that he has mastered and other skills that we can continue to develop. This is one of the things I love best about these crates – they grow with your child! Similar to other KiwiCo boxes, I found the materials in the Tadpole Crate to be high quality and sturdy. The project instructions were clear, age-appropriate and easy to follow. Best of all, my son had fun while learning and developing new skills. He really enjoyed the Alphabet Munch activity and since the items are durable and reusable, we can continue having fun even after the projects are complete. The cost of this box is only $19.95 and I think it’s well worth the price!
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, sign up now for the December box.
LIMITED TIME DEAL: Save 60% off your first month! No coupon required, just use this link
ACTIVE DEAL: Save 40% off your first box! No coupon needed - just use this link.
Check out all of our KiwiCo Crate reviews and the Kids Subscription Box Directory!
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