Blog

Disclosure: If you make a purchase through the links posted below, I may receive a small compensation. Read the full disclosure.

Edited to Add: BabbaBox was acquired by Barefoot Books and is no longer offering a subscription service.

Much to my surprise, my (well L’s) October BabbaBox magically appeared in my mailbox yesterday. I’m starting to think maybe they just don’t send out e-mails with tracking numbers? Either that or I just delete them? Whatever. On to the box!

The theme of the October BabbaBox was “Detectives”. This is so right up L’s alley. We spend lots of time hunting for things, finding clues, solving mysteries, watching Scooby Doo, etc. So I was totally excited to see this theme.

The following projects were included in the box:
~create: A Shape Detective Memory Game
~create: A Secret Spy Message Notebook
~explore: A Detective’s Fingerprinting Kit
~story tell: The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Honey
~connect: Monkey Preschool Lunchbox App

And since it was rainy and icky yesterday, we tore right into the box after L got home from school and got to work. Here are our thoughts:

create: A Shape Detective Memory Game:

This is basically a memory game that you make yourself. The instructions say to use the big stickers (circle, square, triangle) on the pieces (which we did), but if I had older kids, I would have for sure made the game harder and used some of the smaller stickers as well. Like I’d put a small red triangle and a small green circle on a set, so it would be more difficult. We had a great time making the game, decorating the container and playing the game. Oh, who won you ask? L of course. He cheats.

create: A Secret Message Spy Notebook:

Umm, can someone please tell me why I never thought of this? You write down a message (on white paper), with a white crayon and then use paint to reveal the message. So simply yet so fun. L had a great time figuring out my message and then writing some of his own to me. My only complaint about this would be that you can only write / paint one message at a time because of the wet paint. We didn’t want to rip any pages out of the book, so we went back and forth between projects while waiting for this to try.

The information card also suggested that you use the paint and eye stickers (which were included) to make a fun fingerprint painting.  So we did!  And I love how it turned out.

explore: A Detective’s Fingerprinting Kit:

This may be my favorite project of the box. And not just because the instructions say to ask before you take fingerprints of people. I suppose it would not be good for people running from the law to get fingerprinted huh? No, we liked this because we haven’t really talked about fingerprints at all. L had fun taking our prints and then had OMG so much fun looking at them in detail with his new spy glass. And when he realized the spy glass doubles as a pen, I thought he was going to fall out of his chair he was so excited.

storytell: The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Honey:

I still love that they give you a book every month. And ones I do not already own at that. I’ve loved the Berenstain Bears since I was a kid, so I was happy to see this included in the box.

connect: Monkey Preschool Lunchbox App:

We haven’t downloaded this yet, but L is always into getting new apps. Umm, that artists puzzle app that was in last months was a big hit. And L was really good at it. I was impressed.

the mom gift: a flashlite:

This gift isn’t my favorite “mom” gift they have included and I am pretty sure that as soon as L sees it, he will steal it and make it his.  That’s fine though because if he’s happy, I’m happy ;).

Oh, and I actually did let L tear this through this box after I snapped the first look picture.  Usually I run off with the box and take pictures and them let him play with everything.  But this was fun too.  For him ;).

In case you don’t know, BabbaBox is a theme-based box delivered right to your door and contains fantastic monthly activities with ALL the materials for kids ages 3-6. It’s $29.99/month (free shipping), but you can save 20% off your first box using the code “a20off”.  Do you subscribe to BabbaBox? What do you think? What was your favorite project this month?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (duh). BabbaBox does not know who I am nor have they asked me to do this review.