Kiwi Crate Subscription Box Review + Coupon – March 2016

Kiwi Crate is a subscription box for children ages 3-8. It arrives every month with all the materials and instructions needed to complete 2-3 crafts centered around a theme, plus additional materials to help educate young learners!

Kiwi Crate kindly sent us this box to review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

The Subscription Box: Kiwi Crate

The Cost: Regular monthly subscription is $19.95 per month + free shipping

COUPON: Save 50% off your first month with coupon code MSA50!

Ships to: US for free, Canada for $6.95 per month

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. Projects cover a number of developmental areas through art, science, and imaginative play.

Check out all of our Kiwi Crate reviews and the Kids Subscription Box Directory!

This month’s theme is “Magic”! We have always had a lot of success with magic-themed boxes. The kids love them!

Every month, Kiwi Crate includes a copy of explore! magazine. My son loves this magazine! He always wants to try all of the activities in it, and it also has some cute comics and short articles that are perfect for his reading level.

Kiwi Crate usually send the materials and instructions for 2-3 discreet projects that fit the theme, but this month is a little different. This month they sent the materials and supplies to put on a whole magic show! But the “projects” required to put the show together were small and simple – a lot less complex than Kiwi Crate’s usual projects. There were several tricks to learn. So fun!

These are the supplies that were provided. Everything was included that we needed this month.

This picture represents the first two tricks, both of which were duds. On the left is a small wooden dome with a toothpick balancing on it under a plastic cup (sorry it’s hard to see). You should be able to rub the magic wand (middle) with the blue felt square for 20-30 seconds to create static electricity, which would then allow you to spin the toothpick. It didn’t work. I think the cup was too large. On the right is a little bag of confetti. You should be able to rub the wand similarly, then be able to pick up the confetti with your magic wand. This one didn’t really work either. We could only pick up 1-2 pieces of confetti. Additionally, my son and I both thought it would be a terrible part of a magic show if the magician stood there rubbing his wand for 20-30 seconds, over and over.

On the other hand, the wand-rubbing technique (pictured in action here) worked brilliantly in making this bunny appear from inside the magic box! This was a fun one! I’m not sure why the bunny paper stuck and the confetti didn’t. Maybe because the bunny was only 1-ply?

Voila! My son pulled a handkerchief from an empty magic box by building a false side. This one worked very well also.

This trick also worked very well, and my son and I both got a kick out of it because it’s kind of corny. He could make a coin appear (or disappear) but putting the cup over it. The cup has a yellow paper disc glued to the rim. The cups arrived a little bent, so you can kind of see the disc if you look closely.

This trick worked and had a bit of a wow factor for my son. It was extremely hard to photograph and give you even the slightest idea of what’s happening here, but basically it’s a changing picture. If you look at it one way, it’s a duck drawn under a hat and wand, but if you change the angle, you see a picture of a DOMO on a stage. (If you read my Nerd Block Jr. Boys review, I told you my eight-year-old would be super into DOMO as soon as he received that toy). Pretty cool!

Verdict: This was a fun month of Kiwi Crate! At the same time, I think we still prefer doing projects over this type of activity-heavy box. My son had fun showing his Dad and brother the tricks, but it was kind of a bummer that a couple of the tricks didn’t work so well, and three of the tricks required excessive wand rubbing. In any case, Kiwi Crate is one of my favorite subscription boxes for kids, and I still think it’s about the best $20 you can spend on your child every month!

What do you think of Kiwi Crate?