Tinker Crate is a subscription box for kids and tweens ages 9-16+ created by kids subscription box company KiwiCo. Each monthly Tinker Crate contains all the materials and instructions needed to create innovative, hands-on STEM projects, as well as a "Tinker Zine" full of educational information and additional activities.
This review is of KiwiCo's Tinker Crate (for ages 9-16+), which costs $19.95 per month.
ACTIVE DEAL: Get 50% off your 1st month! No coupon needed - just use this link.
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.)
First Impressions
I loved that the packaging showed us everything that would be inside and the idea of making our own drip irrigation unit and growing real plants was something I knew would be great for a homeschool lesson for my kids! Let's see how the build went!
What's Inside This Box
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Our Tinker Zine is full of educational information about irrigation and different types of irrigation systems. They also give us a few fun ideas for ways to distribute water at home using recycled materials and they even include a nice chart at the back where we can record our watering schedule for our plants.
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The directions for our project come on a separate sheet with illustrated steps broken into different sections. They always include helpful troubleshooting information as well.
Part A: Prepare the Planter Pots
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The first step was to plant our seeds. They provided some plastic cups, stickers to label them with, plantable pots, and packets of seeds. We received beans, watermelon, and wheatgrass to plant. Our soil was missing, but after contacting them, they quickly sent out six little pods of soil for us.
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Planting the seeds was pretty simple. We added the dry soil to the cups and then added some water until they were moistened. The kids were amazed at the way the condensed soil expanded in their cups. Then we placed our sticker labels on and planted a few of each type of seeds in their accompanying cup.
Part B: Build the Water Tower
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Now it was time to build our water tower. They provided several wooden pieces with holes and notches along with some green foam stickers.
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The build was so easy thanks to the detailed instructions. We added the foam stickers where they needed to go and then assembled the unit and stuck our remaining water cup in the center.
Part C: Build the Trellis
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We used the rest of the wooden pieces and foam stickers to assemble the trellis which is where our tubing would sit.
They provided several pieces of tubing along with some connectors.
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My daughter assembled those and then we added them to our trellis which had little notches to hold the tubing up.
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Then we set our pots underneath each little dripper connector and filled up the water tower with water. The other end of the tubing went into the water tower, this is how our plants would receive their water.
Part D: Set the Drip Irrigation
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To actually set the drip irrigation, we took turns with the syringe at the other end of the tubing and worked the air bubbles out of the tubing before plugging it with the stopper.
Then we opened the drippers by turning them counterclockwise and we adjusted them until they were timed correctly with about 10 seconds in between drips. I was pretty impressed with how well it worked!
Now we wait for our plants to grow! We just have to keep an eye on our water tower and refill it when it gets low. I love that they even had a little hole in the tower where we could store our syringe in case we need to remove any air bubbles. They always think of the little things and I definitely appreciate that!
Value - Was This Box Worth It?
The Cost: $19.95
ACTIVE DEAL: Get 50% off your 1st month! No coupon needed - just use this link.
This box allowed us to do some hands-on work by building our system and planting our seeds and we also learned all about irrigation. Everything was well organized, the instructions were easy to follow, and best of all, my kids will learn some valuable skills through taking care of their plants. I'd say that makes this box well worth the cost!
Key Takeaways
I love that we made our own drip irrigation system for our plants, but I do wish that we had received this box at a different time of year so that we could actually plant these once they are ready. Since we are heading into winter, it will be a bit of a challenge trying to keep our plants alive indoors, but again, that will make for a great lesson for the kids!
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To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? It is possible you might get this crate, but it is not a guarantee. From KiwiCo:
Crates are assigned each month based on availability and your crate history - not all subscribers receive the same theme each month.
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