Koala 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:
- Panda Crate for 0-24-month-olds,
- Koala Crate for 2-4-year-olds,
- Kiwi Crate for 5-8-year-olds,
- Atlas Crate for 6-11-year-olds,
- Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate for 9-16+-year-olds,
- Eureka Crate and Maker Crate for ages 14 and up. There really is something for every age with this company.
This review is of the $19.95 a month Koala Crate, for Pre-K kids ages 2-4.
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 Koala Crate from KiwiCo
The Subscription Box: KiwiCo Koala Crate
The Cost: $19.95 a month + free shipping. Save with longer subscriptions.
The Products: 2-3 fun DIY projects for you to do with your preschooler!
Ships to: The U.S. for free, Canada for $3.95 per month, worldwide from $4.95-$6.95.
Koala Crate "Farm" Review
I am so excited to be reviewing Koala Crate! I have a 7-year-old son and a 4-year-old son, and they love crafting and learning, so this box is perfect for them! While they recommend this box for ages 2-4, my 7-year-old really enjoys reading the stories and helping his little brother build the projects. I don't have to do anything- they work as a team and figure it out for themselves! (Of course I like to watch and play too.) It's amazing to watch them complete tasks all on their own- they really feel accomplished when they are finished!
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This month’s theme is "Farm" and the boys had the opportunity to create a vegetable garden matching game, barnyard finger puppets, and a barn tote. We live in the country and are HUGE gardeners, so it was really fun to be able to create an inside version of what we do outside! Not only did the included instructions list the items that you need for each craft, but they list the messiness, grownup involvement factor, skills used, and pictures! These instructions are so easy to follow; my 7-year-old was able to whip right through them! I also enjoy the website they list on the back for more creative farm activities!
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Also included in this box is a wonderful magazine titled "imagine!" This magazine features fun clipart, games, stories, a craft idea, and a library list with books all about farming! Koala Crate does an amazing job with every aspect of this box, and the curation is out of this world! My boys loved reading the stories and learning little facts along the way!
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I love how easy to read these stories are. They include real facts and cute stories that go along perfectly with the theme. My kids were engaged and having fun throughout the entire experience.
Vegetable Garden
Vegetable Stickers
Garden Box
Pipe Cleaners
Wooden Beads
These were the materials we used for the vegetable garden. We received carrot beads, radish beads, turnip beads, potato beads, green beads, pipe cleaners, a garden box, and stickers. This month we didn't need a single item from home!
To make our vegetable garden, we had to put our garden box with the open bottom facing down.
We then were able to decorate our garden box with the provided stickers. Each boy was able to decorate 2 sides of the box to their liking. (Charlie's favorite stickers were the worms!)
Next up was creating the vegetables. They included step by step instructions for how to make each vegetable. The process for each one was basically the same, with different colors. Hank flew through this step, but Charlie got a little mixed up. Hank, being the good big brother he is, helped Charlie figure it out.
We ended up with 2 radishes, 2 carrots, 2 turnips, and 2 potatoes!
After the beads were on the pipe cleaners, we were able to "plant" them in the foam holes of the box.
The kids were organizing their garden box just like our real garden, with the same types of vegetables in each row.
And here are our vegetables and garden box complete! They turned out adorable, and we then got to set-up for the vegetable memory game!
To play the memory game, you plant the vegetables in your garden (at random) and pull out two. If they match you set them aside, and if they don't it's the other player's turn. This was a really fun game, and we had a great time "picking" our vegetables!
Barnyard Finger Puppets
Finger Puppet Felt and Accessories
Finger Puppet Eyeballs
Here are the included supplies to create the finger puppets. We received 4 felt puppets, felt stickers, and wiggle eyes.
The step by step instructions for these cute puppets were extremely easy to follow. I loved how they gave us a guide of what our puppets could look like, but also gave us the option of making up our own faces! The boys decided to follow the guide, and create their animals based on that.
They even have tails for the back of the puppets! How cute is that?!
The materials they use are very high quality! The stickers really adhered to the puppet and will last a long time!
Because we received 4 different animals, each child was able to create 2. They had a lot of fun adding their stickers, and performing puppet shows for me and my husband!
Barn Tote
The last project for this month was this adorable barn tote. We received a large piece of heavy printed cardboard, cut out and perfectly folded for a barn. The quality and craftsmanship of this piece are awesome! And the clipart is really cute!
All of the creases are in place to be able to build without confusion.
We also received a red felt handle that we will place on the top of the barn, so it is easy for little hands to carry!
They included velcro circles with stickers on the back to put on the barn to close it up. They used different colors so the kids are able to decipher which pieces go where.
Before we started, we read the instructions carefully to ensure we didn't make any mistakes.
We then placed the black velcro stickers on the black circles and the white velcro stickers on the white circles. Easy peasy!
After our velcro sticky dots were all adhered, we folded the barn up as indicated by the directions.
We velcroed it all together and added the red handle.
Let the fun begin! As soon as the barn was complete, we opened it up and played with our finger puppets on the printed inside. I heard a lot of "the cows are in the corn, and they won't come out!"
And here are the boys with their completed Koala Crate. We were all really impressed with the quality and fun they sent this month! While the projects were pretty quick, we really enjoyed spending the time together, and I can tell you already, we will be using these items a lot!
Verdict: This Koala Crate was awesome! I am addicted to crafts, and ones that help my children learn are my absolute favorite! The curation and quality of this box are remarkable. Everything they send is so well put together, and perfect for my boys. We love spending time together, and this box is perfect for doing that! This month the kids worked on creativity, fine motor skills, exploring, and discovering - all extremely important for growing minds, and all a lot of fun!
All of the projects included were made of high-quality materials, were educational, fun, and well thought out. I this box is definitely worth the $19.95!
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? From KiwiCo:
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 the best subscription boxes for toddlers!
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