Kiwi Crate is a subscription box for kids ages 5-8 from parent company KiwiCo. It arrives every month with all the materials and instructions needed to complete 2-3 crafts centered on a theme, plus additional materials to help educate young learners!
KiwiCo offers boxes for different age groups:
- Panda Crate for 0 to 24-month-olds,
- Koala Crate for 2 to 4-year-olds,
- Kiwi Crate for 5-8-year-olds,
- Atlas Crate for 6-11-year-olds,
- Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate for 9-16+-year-olds, and
- Eureka Crate for ages 14 and up.
There really is something for every age with this company!
This review is of KiwiCo’s Kiwi Crate (for ages 5-8), which costs $19.95 per month.
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 Kiwi Crate
The Subscription Box: Kiwi Crate
The Cost: $19.95 per month + free shipping
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.
Ships to: The U.S. for free, Canada for $3.95 per month, worldwide from $4.95-$6.95
Kiwi Crate October 2019 "Mirror Illusions" Review
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Our theme for this month is Mirror Illusions and we received this booklet which contains the directions for our activities. This includes detailed, colored illustrations and clear instructions that are easy to follow. They also included some educational information on the science of mirrors. On the back of the booklet they include their social media links and a sticker for this month’s project.
This is the little sticker chart that we received in our first Kiwi Crate along with our welcome note. We are out of room on our Adventure Map, but this is where we would add our sticker!
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Each month you also get a Kiwi Explore! magazine with a letter from Steve the Kiwi and a little comic to go along with the theme starring some cute character and this month is all about reflection. The rest of the pages contain information related to our theme and some fun activities such as a mirror word search and an idea for a game of "tic-tac-yum."
Project 1: Trick Box
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Our first activity was to make a trick box. The first step was to pop open this box frame.
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Then we chose one of these inserts. While the front has some fun designs, the backs were all blank so that we could add our own designs. This will be another great activity in itself for a rainy day!
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Since she chose the grassy scene they recommended adding some stickers to it. We had some Frozen stickers on hand so we added a few of those and then she folded it along the crease and inserted it into our box making sure to match up the arrows.
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She peeled the plastic off of our mirror which was marked with green so we knew which one to use (there were two mirrors in this box) and then we stuck it in the box making sure the mirror faced the window at the front of our box. Then she closed up the lid.
When we looked through the window we could see our mirror image of Elsa and Anna inside.
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The trick part came next. We added some M & Ms into the slot at the top and watched to see where they went and they seemed to magically disappear! The kids thought this was so fun and they had a good time tricking each other with coins and other small objects we could find to fit into the slot. Really they all just ended up behind the mirror so they didn't enter into our reflected image. Clever and fun...especially if you're a five-year-old!
Project 2: Painted Puzzle
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Next, it was time to paint our puzzle pieces. They provided a set of four different colored paints and a set of paint stampers as well as a frame and four wooden squares.
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First up, we lined up our squares to form one big square and then added one of these four clear stickers to the center of them all. She chose the little birdie, but we also had a fish, emoji, or cloud to choose from.
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Our paint was a bit dried out, but after adding a few drops of water and shaking them up, they were good as new. Then it was time to use these stampers and start adding color to our squares.
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I realized after she started that I had completely forgotten about the frame that was supposed to help keep them all in place. Oops!
Here is her completed puzzle the next day. When everything was dry, we removed the sticker to leave behind this image in the negative space. Cute!
Project 3: Mirror Goggles
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Our final project was to make a set of mirror goggles. They provided this cardboard piece and some brads that we needed for our first steps.
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She popped open the box and then we folded the edges down, matching the colored circles to one another and then inserted a brad on either side to hold it into place.
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Then we added these gray foam pieces to the three marked rectangles on the edges of our goggles. These are to make them more comfortable since they are the areas that will be pressing against our face.
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This blue foam ring went on top in the marked spot.
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She then added this bead to the purple ribbon and turned the metal piece at the end to hold it on. Then she inserted it into the hole at the top of our goggles next to the blue ring and made sure the metal lay flat inside and added a clear sticker over it to keep it in place.
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Next, she threaded the elastic strap through the holes on the side of the goggles and secured them with these plastic cord stoppers.
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She then added three adhesive circles to the purple circles marked inside our goggles and then peeled the backings from them.
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She pulled the plastic from the mirror (marked with a purple square) and then she inserted it into the goggles sticking it down on top of the purple circles she had just stuck inside.
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Our goggles were complete! They fit her great and the cord stopper makes them adjustable which is nice!
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They provided another four-piece puzzle for us to test out our goggles. We placed the wooden bead on top of the foam ring and the goal was to try and keep it in place as you complete the puzzle. You have to keep your head turned up pretty far and it was definitely a little tricky trying to do a puzzle using mirror images, but my daughter didn't seem to have much trouble with this challenge! She got a kick out of it and especially liked looking around in her goggles afterward.
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We had some more fun the next day testing out her painted puzzle! I just love how creative these crates are!
Verdict: This month's Kiwi Crate contained a lot of fun projects! This was a great way to explore mirrors, reflections, and illusions and it was very age-appropriate. Everything is always so well-organized in these boxes and in this case the activities went so well with one another and seemed to build upon the concepts we learned. While the three activities we completed were plenty, I think that a lot of the extension ideas from our booklet will provide even more entertainment and fun ways to explore this topic further! This $19.95 plus free shipping box is always a great value to us for the fun way we get to learn new things!
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.
Check out all of our Kiwi Crate reviews and more boxes for ages 5-8 in the Kids Subscription Box Directory!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
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