Dispatch is a monthly "subscription-based mystery" from Breakout Games that "tests your detective skills each month with a new delivery of clues." They also have a kids' version called Dispatch Kids:
Dispatch Kids offers a unique experience for engagement between parents and children. Gameplay positively impacts cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being in kids. Our goal is to provide a thorough story-driven experience that utilizes modern approaches to child play.
This is a review of the $24.99/month first series called Coin Quest recommended for ages 3-5.
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.)
About Dispatch Kids by Breakout Games
The Subscription Box: Dispatch Kids
The Cost: $24.99 a month + free shipping
ACTIVE DEAL: Save $10 off your first box!
CODE: dispatchsignup10
The Products: Physical clues to help solve a mystery
Ships to: USA
Dispatch Kids: Coin Quest by Breakout Games #1 Review
Before we received our first box, we received this postcard in the mail from Johnny. It also provided a link to their website with some games and other activities to keep us occupied while we awaited our first box.
Inside our box was this card with a checklist for everything that should be inside of our box. I always appreciate a contents list in boxes to make sure you aren't missing anything!
We received this booklet which welcomed us and also highlighted a few skills that we would be focusing on during these activities. The center of the booklet provided us with details on how to play the game.
On the back of the booklet, they provided several extension ideas for developing your child's skills even further. I like that these were not strictly academic, but also focused on social and emotional skills as well.
We received this note from Johnny telling us that he had lost his coin and wanted us to help him color in the "Missing" poster that he had made. They included a pack of crayons and a checklist at the bottom of colors that we would have to figure out. Some questions were common sense, while others were specific to Johnny that we needed to answer using other information from our box contents.
We received a photo of our friend Johnny attached to a fact sheet that told us various things about our new friend, such as his favorite color and animal, and of course his favorite object, which is his special coin. These were also the answers to some of the questions on our note. On the back of this card, they had the same questions for your child to answer about themselves. They encouraged them to find out what they had in common with Johnny. I thought this was great because it allowed my daughter to come up with her own answers and also gave her a way to connect with the main character of this story.
The front of our "Missing" poster had a message from Johnny asking us to call him after we colored the coin on the back. The coin would contain the missing number to complete his phone number. To color in our poster correctly, we needed to use all the information that we had so far about Johnny as well as some basic information. Once we had those answers we were able to find the missing number on the poster so that we could call Johnny.
I scanned the QR code on the paper and then we were taken to a site with a dial pad. I helped my daughter enter in the numbers from the poster so that we could call Johnny. This was a great activity for learning/ reinforcing numbers, by the way! Once we heard the message from him, the next step was to retrace all of Johnny's steps from when his coin went missing after visiting the playground.
We were taken to a site with six different silhouette images that matched up to the large silhouette cards that we received. After locating our silhouette cards, we then had to match those up to the color cards that we received which had a shape and color in the corner. This told us how to retrace Johnny's steps by matching it to the picture on the website. This was a great reinforcement activity for matching, shape, color and number skills! It was also a good lesson in problem-solving skills. This is also where it got very confusing to me as you will see in the next part.
We received this little green pawprint stamp and used it to mark all of the places that Johnny had been on the map. In retrospect, I guess we could have used it to make a trail between each location or we should have numbered them. Since we didn't mark them to show their order, it made the last part of our game a bit more difficult because our cards were out of order. More on that below.
On the back of each colored card were different activities and questions for parents to ask the child. The top section had questions and information that helped us to retrace Johnny's steps. We read them out of order since we did them as we matched them to our silhouettes which is how I got things confused. When we went to the website and they asked us to retrace our steps to find out where Johnny had lost his coin, we had the wrong answer because we had done the picture order instead of focusing on the numbers associated with each picture. This wasn't a huge deal, and maybe I missed something somewhere that would have made it more clear, but if you are a parent, I suggest going through the process once before you do it with your child so that you can direct them properly!
Once we figured out where Johnny lost his coin, we were told that Johnny would be sending us some more information soon to help us get the coin back. Then we were able to do an extra activity on our map, which was a little look and find around the park scene. My daughter had fun locating butterflies and bees and other items in the scene.
Verdict: I thought our Dispatch Kids box was pretty fun to receive, but I think the confusion that I had over the game left me feeling a bit underwhelmed at first; however, my opinion changed once I realized how my daughter felt about it. While we were completing the activities, I was amazed at how well my daughter (3 1/2 years old) was putting everything together and following along, but I honestly didn't even realize how engaged she was until afterward when she couldn't stop talking about it! She was so excited that Johnny was going to send her another clue and she kept talking about what information we had uncovered and explained it all to Daddy. It was really cool to see her be so engaged with this even after we had completed the activities. This box costs $24.99 + free shipping and while that seems like a lot for what we got in our box, the experience and the excitement that it generated in my daughter made it worthwhile. I also think that the educational aspect added a lot to the value of this box.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? All new subscribers receive the first box so that the boxes can be opened in sequence.
Coupon - Use code dispatchsignup10 to save $10 off your first box!
Check out all of our Dispatch reviews and more boxes for ages 3-4 and ages 5-8 in the Kids Subscription Box List!
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What do you think of Dispatch Kids?
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