Atlas Crate is the newest subscription box from parent company KiwiCo. This box is designed to spark the curiosity and sense of adventure in children ages 6-11 and help them become citizens of the world. Each month they will deliver materials and instructions to provide hands-on experiences to help them develop their sense of cultural awareness.
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, Tinker Crate for 9-16+-year-olds, and Atlas Crate for 6-11-year-olds. There really is something for every age with this company.
This review is of the $19.95 a month Atlas Crate box, for 6-11-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 Atlas Crate
The Subscription Box: Atlas Crate
The Cost: $19.95 per month + free shipping
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 about the world.
Ships to: U.S. for free, Canada for $6.95 per month
Atlas Crate February 2019 Review
The country we explored this month was India and we received this envelope full of information. I love the greeting in another language and the detail of the string closure on the back, it makes it just a smidge more exciting being able to physically open this!
This envelope unfolded to show us a contents list and several pages to add to our Adventure Book. Everything in this box is incredibly organized and nicely packaged making it easy to locate it all!
We received this Adventure Book in our first box and this month they gave us an India sticker to add to the front of it. The rings of the book open up so that we can add more pages as we receive them.
Our first box was based on the World and contained cards for each of the continents. This time we were able to locate the continent in our book and add our pages behind it.
These cards are bright and vibrant and full of tons of information about India on each side. This month they discussed the festival of Diwali and the Taj Mahal. I especially enjoy the fun facts page since we always learn something new!
The other pages included some activities such as instructions on how to do a few yoga moves and a recipe for mango lassi. I love that they included a homemade henna recipe using glue and food coloring so we can make mehndi patterns on our skin, although I'm not quite brave enough to test this out with a 2 and 4-year old just yet!
The first activity in our box this month was to make a rangoli which is a handmade decoration that is usually made on the ground. They provided materials so that we could make a smaller scale rangoli to place anywhere. The directions were so clear and easy to follow and included helpful pictures.
They provided this nice wooden board with a pattern on the front and a plastic cover to go over it.
They also provided a mess mat, some foam stickers, toothpicks and several different colored bags of sand along with some cups to pour them in.
I set up my area making sure to place the rangoli board onto the mess mat with the creased side down. Then I filled my cups with the sand.
Our rangoli design was to be created with sand, which was a bit intimidating at first until I realized that the white paper peeled off to reveal a patch of adhesive for the sand to stick to.
To complete the rest of the rangoli we simply peeled the paper off of the areas that we wanted to color in with sand, which was difficult but made easier by using the toothpicks, then we sprinkled on our sand and dumped the excess onto our mess mat. Since we had the creased side down, it formed a little funnel and we could easily pour the excess sand back into the cup.
I thought our rangoli turned out beautifully, although I do wish that I had used the blue sand first instead of towards the end because it seemed to really stick in the other colors too, especially the white sand which seemed to go on clear. Overall, I loved the colors and how they all looked together!
To finish it up, I added the clear cover to the top and inserted the tabs into the little slots on our wooden piece. Then I used the foam stickers to stick the tabs down underneath to keep the cover nice and snug over our sand art.
Now it is ready for us to use as decoration. They recommend adding a tea light to it for celebrating holidays like Diwali. Rangoli can also be made by using colored powders or grains and they are said to bring good fortune to a household for the next year.
They also provided some information about how rangoli patterns are passed from generation to generation and explained some other materials that they can be made of. My daughter and I have plans to go outside and create a natural rangoli once the weather is nice!
The second activity was to play Snakes and Ladders. They provided some information about how this ancient board game was meant to encourage good behavior. The ladders represent good choices while the snakes represent bad ones. We received a simplified version, but I appreciated that they also told us a little bit about the traditional game too. I liked how this game provided an opportunity to discuss choices we can make and actions we can perform that can be good or bad.
The game pieces included four wooden playing pieces, a purple die, and some felt ladders and snakes of varying sizes.
Our game board was a nice thick piece of felt that could easily fold up and featured numbered squares up to 100. The goal of the game is to get from the 1 square to the 100 square.
To start we placed the ladders and snakes anywhere on the board just making sure that the ends of the ladders and snakes rested firmly inside one square on each end instead of being in between some of them.
Then you roll the die to see how many spaces to move. If you land at the bottom of a ladder, you get to move your piece up the ladder to the square at the top of the ladder. If you land at the tongue of a snake, you have to slide down the snake to the end of it. Since the ladders represent good choices and the snakes represent bad ones, it would be easy to have a dialogue with your child throughout the game as to what bad decisions they might have made and what good ones they can make.
To win you have to land exactly in the 100 square and if you go over, you have to bounce back, so it can get a bit tricky to become the winner!
On the back of our instructions, they gave a few fun facts about how the earliest written reference to dice comes from an epic Indian poem and that the phrase "back to square one" can be attributed to this game. So interesting!
Verdict: I always love when Atlas Crate chooses to include a game and a traditional art activity. I think that these are such great ways to showcase a little bit of the country's culture in a fun way that really appeals to kids. It was great to learn about India in a way that was so organized and through activities that had a lot of meaning behind them. These boxes provide such a great introduction and starting point for really diving into other cultures and exploring them. At $19.95 plus free shipping, we have been enjoying our experiences in a way that is exciting and stress-free thanks to the well thought out activities!
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Yes, it is likely, but keep this in mind- from Kiwi Co:
Crates are assigned each month based on availability and your crate history - not all subscribers receive the same theme each month.
Check out all of our KiwiCo reviews and more boxes for ages 5-8 and ages 9-12 in the Kids Subscription Box List!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
What do you think of Atlas Crate?
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