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You’d think with all these snow / cold days we’ve been having we would have been able to tack our January 2014 Kiwi Crate sooner, but yesterday was the first chance we got to sit down and explore!
If you aren’t familiar, Kiwi Crates are designed around fun themes and filled with all of the materials and inspiration for hands-on projects for kids ages 3-7. L is 5 and is getting to the point where he can be more in charge of the project and is able to follow along on the instructions better and better each month.
Kiwi Crate ships via FedEx Smart Post and generally takes about a week to arrive. That’s about the standard for FedEx Smart Post.
The January 2014 Kiwi Crate theme was “mad science” and included two projects “my weeble(*) wobblers” and “my science lab”. L was thrilled about the Science Lab one because he wants to be a Scientist when he grows up.
Everything arrive in perfect condition and I don’t believe that anything I have ever received from Kiwi Crate has ever spilled or arrived damaged? That puffy paint they sometimes send has been a little crazy to work with, but that’s about it.
Project #1 – “My Weeble Wobblers”
The first project we worked on was “my weeble wobblers” which included everything you needed to build and decorate two wobbling scientists to experiment with to learn about balance. The project was low on the messiness scale, low on the grownup involvement scale and involved discovering, moving – fine and creating.
We did not do such a hot job getting these to balance and they kept tipping over and over! We were quite proud of ourselves when we finally did get it. And let’s talk about those color changing markers. Those were the coolest things ever! One marker was green / purple and the other was orange / yellow. You would color and it was purple, but when you colored on it with the magic white marker, it changed to green. SO cool!
Project #2 – My Science Lab
The second project, and L’s favorite, was “my science lab” which included the materials to experiment with different liquids and colors with a pair of mad scientist test tubes. It was high on the messiness scale, medium on the grown-up involvement scale and involved “discovering”, “moving – fine” and “creating”.
As predicted this project was a huge hit. It was probably one of L’s favorite Kiwi Crate projects ever. We all enjoyed mixing the oil and water and seeing how they separated. The food coloring which looked like little balls made it even cooler. A total hit.
This month’s explore! magazine excluded a cute story, a maze, a spot the differences picture, etc. It also included a DIY Lava Lamp project, which may get made this week when we are hunting around for something to do in this weather.
The magazine also had corn starch experiment (complete with corn starch) which will be another snowy day project for us.
Did you get Kiwi Crate this month? What’d you think? I have heard people mention that if they ordered through one of the deal sites (Plum District, etc.) they received a box from a previous month. Was this the case for you? Which box did you get? If you are interested in subscribing, head to the Kiwi Crate website to order your crate. And if you order before January 30th, don’t forget to use the coupon code “SHARE” to save 40% off your first box (thanks Tara)!
