Koala Crate is the preschool subscription box offering from KiwiCo, designed for hands-on learning and fun every month!
KiwiCo offers boxes for different age groups: Cricket Crate is for 0-36 months, Koala Crate for ages 3-4, Kiwi Crate for ages 5-8, Atlas Crate for ages 6-11, and Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate are for ages 9-16 and up.
This review is of the $19.95 a month Koala Crate, for Pre-K kids ages 3-4.
This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Koala Crate
The Subscription Box: Koala Crate
The Cost: $19.95 a month + free shipping
COUPON: Get 40% off + free shipping on your first box of any KiwiCo line. No coupon needed—just use this link!
The Products: 2-3 fun DIY projects for you to do with your preschooler!
Ships to: US
Our Unboxing & Review
This is actually my first time checking out Koala Crate! My son is just about 3.5 years old right now, so he is the perfect age range for this box. He gets really excited when I bring home "projects" to do together, so when he saw me walk in the door carrying this box, he couldn't wait to dig in.
This month's theme is Music, which is definitely right up our alley! My husband and I play in a band together and my son loves to play on daddy's drum kit. When he saw this project, he immediately made me laugh by imitating his dad's metronome ("One-ee-and-a-two-ee-and-a...").
Koala Crate includes a handy parent's guide that runs you through everything you need to do this month's projects. I highly recommend reading this in advance if you can! My son was raring to go. Thankfully, the only additional item we needed was some paper to prevent us from making a mess, but I threw caution to the wind and proceeded without it. 😉
This kit includes three different projects to be used together:
A xylophone (which can also transform into a box guitar!)...
A tambourine (Koala shaped, of course)...
...and finally a dancing streamer! There's a little something for every type of kid here, and ways to get multiple children involved, both of which I loved.
As I mentioned, the box included everything we needed for all of these projects, so we could get started right away:
Dot stampers
Rubber bands and foam stopper
Jingle bells and elastic band
Music composition sheets
Ribbon with grommet
Tambourine back and wooden mallets
Wooden xylophone keys
Ready to get started?
First, we put our elastic bands on the xylophone box as indicated in the directions. I really appreciated that they sent a smaller box inside the main box instead of asking you to reuse the original packaging!
The instructions have you use the included stampers to put one color on each xylophone bar. We definitely got a little bit of ink on our hands because it takes a few minutes to dry, but otherwise, this wasn't super messy at all. My son really enjoyed this!
We set this aside while we waited for the ink to dry, and I showed my son how to assemble the tambourine:
Koala Crate really nailed all the details here! The elastic band has metal ends that securely hold it into place after you weave it through the wooden backing piece and all of the bells, so you don't have to worry about tying knots or anything. It made the project so much more fun and easier to do as a parent!
My son was easily able to thread the elastic through the wooden backer's holes, but the bells were a little tricky so I had to help him with that part.
Then we assembled the xylophone and used our included stampers to compose some music! He just randomly picked colors and put them right on the dots on the paper– the concept was super easy for him to grasp and I could tell he liked the challenge of trying to get the stamper right on the dot.
Then it was playtime! I couldn't really get him to read his own sheet music, but we talked about the idea and I played his "song" for him. He got a huge kick out of that! And of course, he wanted me to play it faster and slower while he ran around and danced.
At some point, he grabbed dad's hi-hat jingle thing which was (unbeknownst to me) sitting underneath our couch. I think the Koala Crate tambourine wasn't loud enough for him, haha.
I didn't get any photos of us putting the ribbon together, but it was also super simple: just slide the ribbon onto the third mallet and secure it with the foam ring. You can decorate your ribbon with the stampers, too, but I decided to wait and do that another day when we could take the project outside and feel free to get a little messier.
Koala Crate also sends a mini-magazine every month that goes along with the theme of the box. We used this as a bedtime story last night after we completed our projects!
In addition to the story, there are also some other fun activities and additional creative play ideas using items that are not included in your box:
He made me read the story twice and enjoyed talking about different types of instruments that aren't part of the box, too. And the next morning he couldn't wait to take it all out and play with it more! We ended up turning the xylophone into a guitar during breakfast and he spent a few minutes practicing his plucking.
Verdict: Our first Koala Crate by KiwiCo was a huge win! I love planning creative projects to do with my son when I can, but it definitely takes some time to plan and think through those things (not to mention running out to buy supplies if it's something a little more complex). This box felt so well thought-out and made everything so easy, so we could really focus on just making and playing our instruments. And probably most importantly: my son had a blast! Everything was age appropriate, and I loved that we could also read a story before bed to help tie everything together.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, sign up now for the August box.
Coupon – Save 40% off your first month! No coupon required, just use this link.
Check out all of our Koala Crate reviews and the Kids Subscription Box Directory!
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What do you think of Koala Crate?
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