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.
For more ways to keep your kiddos educationally engaged during these times, check out our Returning to Learning back-to-school guide to see how subscriptions can help make your life easier as you navigate this unique school year.
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 July 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 on its way to you.
The first 6 months of this subscription teach your child the letters of the alphabet (letter recognition, sounds, and writing) and numbers; the second 6 months focus 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 V and same/different identification. Week 2 covers the letters W and X. Week 3 covers the letter Y and a counting with objects (numbers 15-20) activity. Week 4 covers the letter Z and an assessment that covers the first 6 months of the subscription, which covers the alphabet and numbers 1-20. 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 is a folder of paper materials for activities and crafts.
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Here's a closer look at the worksheets. My son enjoys working through preschool workbooks so he likes completing these pages. When we started this subscription, he was at a good developmental level for where this subscription starts. Six months later though, I think he has learned the alphabet and letter sounds and counting faster than this subscription was paced, but it has still been good practice. But I have to say I'm happy to see them add worksheet activities where they're adding the letter into words like they did on the X and the Z pages - that feels like a good level up from where these pages started because it ties it into reading and spelling 3-letter words. Overall, I appreciate that there is variety between worksheet pages so it doesn't feel like you're just repeating the same tasks over and over with each letter.
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Here's most of the crafts this month. They included making a "V for Vase," "W for Watermelon," "X for X-ray," "Y for Yellow," and "Z for Zebra." These are fun for him and super quick to pull together thanks to this box. I'm normally not a super crafty person, and I don't have any yarn or ribbon or string around so having enough for him to do each of these crafts is really helpful to me. The Y craft involved coloring the Y yellow and gluing random yellow items to it. This was a little boring for my almost-5-year-old but my almost-3-year-old loved it.
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These are some of the activities in our July box. Activities in this box included flashcards (in every box), identifying same/different, counting with objects (numbers 15-20), and number counting and matching. I think Gideon and I both had the most fun with the same/different activity shown in the first photo. They had different cards with 4 pictures on them, 1 different than the rest. The best part of this activity was that some of the differences were really subtle and were a good challenge for him. There was also an issue with the counting/number matching with a typo. The chicks only had 15 of them in the box and 15 isn't a number on the page as an option to match to. That's the first time we've had a typo in our box for all 6 months.
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As I touched on earlier, this subscription is broken up into 6-month sections. The first 6 months focus on basics and really starting Preschool from the beginning with letter identification and sounds and counting from 1-20. The second half of the subscription will focus on more advanced topics like letter blends, addition/subtractions, vowels, sounding and reading words, and more. My son is definitely ready to move on to those concepts at this point in the subscription so I feel that the pace is good.
I really appreciated this assessment! It's a very helpful and thoughtful and practical thing to include. It let me see that my son has all capital letters down, and all lower case except for getting little b's and d's and p's and q's mixed up if he goes quickly. After noticing this, I used our whiteboard and made a game with a bunch of Bs and Ds on the board and had him go through and circle all the Bs, and then erased and did it again, having him circle all the Ds. And you know what? When he took his time he knew which was which! I love that the assessment clarified some sticking points for me to keep in mind and help continue games like this focusing on his weak areas. For the numbers assessment, I saw a couple other sticking points, like remembering how and why numbers go from 9's to the next set of 10s (for example, remembering that 19 goes to 20, and that 29 goes to 30). And now that I know, I can find activities to help make numbers feel more tangible and less abstract for him to help him nail that down.
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Silly Goose by Marni McGee
Every box includes a book to read together. This one is about a goose who is approached by a fox and told "Your ears are missing!" The goose then runs around looking for his ears, and eventually finds the fox selling ears. The goose's friends help him avoid getting swindled. It's a cute read; we've enjoyed all of the books from Preschool Box.
Verdict: We have really enjoyed our subscription to The Preschool Box! I have found it so helpful, having school-at-home work for my almost-5-year-old simplified and prepped for me. Since getting this box, my 4-year-old and I have been doing things from it together and it's been really fun seeing him work, learn, and play. My son has been excited to do the activities and crafts and I love that some activities are repeatable so we can build up a sort of library of educational games and activities to reach for later. Plus, a book in every box helps the value for me as well. With so many families planning to home school or virtually school this year, I can see a subscription like this being very helpful for a lot of parents going through this pivot.
It's hard to put a concrete value assessment on this box because of its nature. I can say that it has totally been worth the cost for my family, though. I know I could probably find resources for similar crafts or projects online myself, but I also have a 2-year-old and a 10-month-old, and I just do not have the time or bandwidth to be able to sit, research, plan, and prepare all of that right now. There is 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 something to do on his own while I do something else!) with no effort, decision making, or internet hunting on my part has made a huge difference for us. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the next 6 months of this subscription have for us now that it will focus more on reading and basic math!
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!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
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