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Kiwi Crate
Cost: $19.95/month.
Ships To: United States and Canada.

After playing outside last night L and I decided it was project time. His June 2014 Kiwi Crate had arrived while he was off spending the night at his Nana’s house and he so wanted to work on it.

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 6 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.  I think he’s going to love it when he takes charge of the projects and can help WB do them! It won’t be too long.

Kiwi Crate ships via FedEx Smart Post and took the standard week to arrive.

Kiwi Crate had released the themes and projects that were coming in their “Summer Adventure Series” (i.e. the June, July & August boxes), but I wasn’t expecting to see a snack in the box!

Our June 2014 Kiwi Crate theme was “Camping Trip” and included two projects – “My Glowing Campfire” and “My Sunprint Backpack”.  Kiwi Crate typically sends out a variety of different crates each month, but I am not totally sure if that holds true for the summer months.  Kiwi Crate has been promoting their Summer Adventure Series so I am guessing everyone is getting the same boxes this month?  I could be wrong though, so let me know if you got a different one!

Project #1 – My Glowing Campfire 

The first project L picked to work on was “My Glowing Campfire”.  It included everything you needed to build a campfire with tissue paper and rocks and “toast” marshmallows!  This project was medium on the messiness scale (I actually thought it was low), medium on the grownup involvement scale and involved exploring, moving – fine and creating.

I was a tad worried that L would think this project was a little young for him, but oh no.  He got right into making his campfire and was even more excited to roast his “marshmallows” (which are really cotton balls).  He’s been getting Kiwi Crate for just about two years now and I can see how he it’s growing with him.  At first I would have to read the instructions, help open things, lead him in the right direction, etc. but now he barely needs me.  We thought this was a really cute project and once we were finished we took it into a dark room so we could better check out the flame (also known as a battery operated tealight).  It almost made me want to camp.  Almost.

Project #2 – My Sunprint Backpack

The second project in this month’s Kiwi Crate was “My Sunprint Backpack”.  It included everything you needed to create your own colorful backpack using fun shapes and paint.  It was high on the messiness scale (I thought it was more like medium – my messiness tolerance is high), medium on the grownup involvement scale and involved moving – fine, creating and discovering.

Working on this one at night may not have been the best idea because, umm, you are suppose to put it out in the sunlight to dry.  We obviously should have though this out a bit better.  It turned out very light, but L didn’t seem to mind.

This month’s “explore!” magazine has the normal puzzles and games and stories along with a few additional projects to try (leaf rubbings and a canteen sleeve) and a recipe for indoor s’mores!  It also has a scavenger hunt for L to do!  I was JUST talking about how I wanted to do one with him.  This is more of an up-north activity since we don’t have squirrels or pinecones in our neighborhood, but I know he will love it.

All subscribers also got a special bonus gift in this month’s box which was a “My Travel Journal”.   It’s for your kids to share their summer adventures, trips, etc.  I was expecting this to be just a blank journal, but it has activities, coloring sheets and lots of other stuff for the kids to do.  Even better than I thought it would be.

I wasn’t expecting this at all, but we also received a NatureBox snack in our June Kiwi Crate box! And a coupon code for a free NatureBox!  L really liked getting his own little snack and I hope they do something like this again in the future.

Did you get Kiwi Crate this month?  What’d you think?  If you are interested in subscribing, head to the Kiwi Crate website to order your crate.  And don’t forget to use the coupon code “FBSAVE25” to save 25% off your first box!