The Preschool Box is a monthly subscription that sends preschool activities to encourage learning, reading, and creativity in children aged 3-6. Every box contains specific learning objectives that focus on phonics, reading skills, and basic math concepts with activities, crafts, and a book.
A portion of all proceeds for this subscription supports an orphanage for at-risk children in Uganda through Rafiki Africa Ministries.
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About The Preschool Box
The Subscription Box: The Preschool Box
The Cost: $32.95 + $5.95 US shipping
The Products: Every box contains specific learning objectives that focus on phonics, reading skills, and basic math concepts and includes 16+ hands-on preschool activities, ready-to-go craft materials, and a book.
Ships to: The US for $5.95 and worldwide at varying rates
The Preschool Box March 2020 Review
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The centerpiece of the box is this parent guide and activity workbook. It has a welcome letter on the inside as well as the curriculum plan for this month. Each Preschool Box has 4 weeks planned out for your child to do, so by the time you finish everything, your next box should be there.
The first 6 months of this subscription teaches your child the letters of the alphabet (letter recognition, sounds, and writing) and numbers; the second 6 months focuses on sounding out and reading words. At the end of the subscription, you receive a fun graduation box!
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Here's a look inside at the parent guide and workbook pages. Week 1's plan covers the letter E and the number 6; week 2 covers the letter F and the number 7; week 3 covers the letter G and numbers 8 & 9, and week 4 covers the letter H and the number 10. These worksheets also involve some colors and size comparisons, and at the end of the booklet is a reading log to track what books you and your child read each day.
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Also in the box was a folder of paper materials for activities and crafts.
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Here's a closer look at the worksheets. My son loves working through preschool workbooks so he enjoyed these pages! I also feel like he's at a really good developmental level for where this subscription starts. He's 4.5 years old and knows his letters, numbers, and colors, so these pages are excellent for practicing and really nailing down the concepts for him than learning from nothing.
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Here's a couple of the crafts they sent. This month's crafts included making an "E for Elephant" and an "F for Frog." There's also a G made into a gumball machine, and upper and lower case Hs made into horses that we haven't done yet. I will say that this month's crafts seemed like a lot of cutting out shapes and gluing them together. Last month felt like it had more variety (painting, coloring, decorating letters with stickers, making rainbow chains with pipe cleaners, etc). I hope to see more variety like last month's crafts in future boxes. I have to admit, I feel like my son & I were less excited about the different crafts this month because it was just one after the other of me cutting out shapes for him to have to glue together in the "correct" formation. It took us more time to go through them, and we still didn't complete all of them yet.
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These are some of the activities in our second box. Our favorite is the first picture, which featured a grid with 10 squares and transparent, colorful, plastic circles. It came with number cards to cut apart and you flipped one over, and then set that many circles down on the grid, one per square. I liked this one because it was really easy to implement basic math concepts and my son liked it because you can layer the plastic circles over each other to see what color they make (he would put a red over a blue and see that they make purple).
There was also a page to sort little pictures by colors, which I actually had my 2-year-old do, and another where you make "apple trees" by putting red dot stickers on tree tops to add up to numbers 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Then you write those numbers on clothespins and they match the clothespins to the trees with that number of apples. Unpictured, there were two other sorting grid activities to sort items by size (big/small), and another that came with a bag of different trinkets like a feather, paper clips, foam shapes, plastic jewels, etc., and sort those any way you can think of like color or size.
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Drew at the Zoo by Gordon Volke - Retail Value $5.54
Every box includes a book to read together. I love that. We no longer receive any book subscriptions but when we used to, my kids loved getting new stories in the mail often. This book is cute and starts with introducing a donkey named Drew who is making a ruckus at the zoo. Each page adds a new animal to the rhyme. It's a fine book but I have to say it's my very least favorite kind of children's book to read: the kind that adds on and on to the same verse so that each page gets longer and longer and you're saying the same thing a dozen time in a row.
Verdict: This is our second Preschool Box! I was extremely happy with our first box and, while we enjoyed this box a lot, the first had more variety in activity types. Looking back, I wish I had sat and cut out all the shapes and pieces needed for the crafts in this box ahead of time, because just about every activity or craft needed time spent cutting out things first. They suggest having your kid do it, but that just took so long and he'd lose interest and/or he isn't quite there yet with his scissor skills to get all the pieces and shapes cut right. All that said, we still enjoyed this month for sure, and we're looking forward to future boxes!
I've been talking about this box to my family and friends because it's just been incredibly helpful. My 4-year-old doesn't really nap anymore so he usually just does quiet time, but since we got this box we've just been doing things from it while my two younger children nap in the afternoons. My son has been excited to do all the activities and I love that some activities are repeatable!
Value Breakdown: It's hard to put a concrete value assessment to this box because of its nature. I can say that it has totally been worth the cost for us this month! I know I could probably find resources for similar printables or projects online myself, but besides my 4-year-old I also have a 2-year-old and a 5-month-old, and I just do not have the time to be able to sit and plan and prepare all of that right now. There is just so much on my plate and I feel a little in survival mode from a new baby (and the world's current events). Having everything in this box ready to grab and do together (or even to set him up with and have a few minutes to do something else!) with no effort, decision making, or internet hunting on my part has honestly made me almost giddy. I also find a lot of value in the fact that there are some repeatable activities we can store, and forever be able to reach for when we need something quiet and educational for him to do for a few minutes, or even take to a restaurant to keep busy. Plus, a book in every box helps the value a lot for me as well.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, your subscription will start with the first Preschool Box to teach your child from the beginning of the Preschool Box's curriculum.
Check out all of our Preschool Box reviews and the best kids subscription boxes for 2020, recommended by MSA readers like you!
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