Benko Box Subscription Box Review – October 2016

Benko Box is a subscription box service for children that provides a monthly dose of art supplies and ideas for children ages 3 and up.

There were many items packed into a pretty small box!

Benko box kindly sent us this box for review purposes. (Check out our review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

The Subscription Box: Benko Box

The Cost: $29 per month with discounts available for longer subscription commitments

The Products: “Specialty art supplies and a few open-ended suggestions to go with each month’s materials.”

Ships to: U.S.

Check out all of our Benko Box reviews and the Kids Subscription Box Directory for more kids activity boxes!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

This is the information card that came in the package. It details the items that were included this month and provides some suggestions on how they might be used.

The reverse side of the info card provides one in-depth idea on using specific materials in the package. It describes how to do printmaking by etching a design into a foam plate, rolling a brayer full of paint over it, and then stamping the plate onto some paper.

This was my eight-year-old son’s first attempt at the printmaking suggestion.

I suggested he try it again without applying additional paint, and it came out much better the second time. It’s a sad cloud. He also played with the tulip stamp here.

For this masterpiece, my son used the brayer with cloud designs on it. Cool!

Benko Box sent us two scratch plates: a bee and a flower. This is my son’s first use of them. They came out pretty good! It reminded me of this ancient activity set I used to have called Fashion Plates when I was a kid. Does anyone else remember those?

After my son tried out everything, I told him he could do whatever he wanted, and he made this lovely chart of all the people he loves. He is crazy sweet, that boy!

Verdict: This is the second time I have reviewed Benko Box, and I have to admit that my feelings about it remain pretty unchanged. For $30, I could get a lot more kid art supplies, to be honest. I think their instruction does have some value, but my kids are already pretty well versed in different art techniques. They usually don’t lack creativity, so the ideas are not that valuable to us. Maybe for children with little art exposure or those who have trouble coming up with ideas, this might be a good subscription. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s really a good fit for us. We had fun trying it out again, though!

What do you think of Benko Box?