The Kiwi Crate is a subscription box service that promises to send you fun and creative package of activities each month. You end up getting everything you need all in one box so that your children can make fun and educational projects with some regularity. But what are parents saying about how well it works?
Overview
It’s good to gives kids an assortment of projects to challenge them, expand their brains, and explore different areas of creativity. The tough part is coming up with this sort of stuff as a parent on a regular basis, if you’re not the creative type you probably wish it was easier to keep your kids engaged in creative endeavors and artsy things. Not to worry because as they say it takes a village and this is a way to get others to help you in an area where you may be lacking.
The Claim
The claim of Kiwi Crate is that you get a monthly box full of all of the materials you’ll need to complete an activity with your kids from start to finish. It’s always nice to have everything you need right in front of you rather than having to wonder if you have it all or not. It’s also good to keep it interesting by keeping it fresh and new, rather than doing the same old thing every day. The Internet is rife with activities suitable for kids of all ages, but then you have to go out and get the materials, so here’s a way to have it all delivered so you don’t even have to think of anything or go anywhere.
What’s Really Being Sold
Parents are fueled by a strong desire to help their children learn and grow, and want them to have a great childhood filled with fun memories of activities and things to do. That’s why it’s sometimes not fair because they know just how to market these products to parents. It becomes a matter of running a cost/benefit analysis and here we’re seeing that the time it would take to come up with ideas, go out and get all of the materials needed, and do the project represents a high cost of time, and this is a way to make it really easy. What you’re really buying here is time, both in thinking and in procuring materials.
The Cost
It’s $20 a month for a Kiwi Crate, and you can get a discount when you go for a 12 month subscription. They have the ability to add on extra siblings so that they aren’t fighting over supplies for an extra $8 or you can always add an additional box for them for the same price.
The Commitment
You can buy just one month or sign on for multiple months, as long as you want to keep receiving boxes. But the real commitment, or lack thereof is that you don’t have to dream up new things for them to do, or make it to your local arts and crafts store to find the materials. Super handy if you live in a rural area that just doesn’t carry these sorts of specialty items.
Evaluation
This is a way to outsource your creativity so that you don’t have to think about it and can handle other things in your life while not neglecting your parental responsibilities. The Kiwi Crate concept is a solid one, and they follow through on it well, attending to possible problems like age appropriateness, and sibling rivalry. Overall we’re pretty impressed with the way they’ve thought of and solved problems as part of their ordering process.
What you’re really evaluating this against is whether or not they are coming up with ideas that are better than what you could come up with on your own, and whether the convenience factor makes it worth it. What you’d have to do in order to emulate this service is come up with new and fun ideas each month, go out and get the materials for it, and then provide step by step instructions for how to get it done. If you’re a teacher or really like arts and crafts, this might be something you’d want to do, or like to do. But if you have other pressing issues like your job and other responsibilities, and feel bad that you don’t have as much time to devote to this sort of thing, it’s good to be able to put this on autopilot.
Final Kiwi Crate Review
The Kiwi Crate is getting our Thumbs Up rating due to the concept and the follow through. Parents that have tried it have responded well to the sort of projects you receive. The good thing is that these aren’t just mindless activities, they are designed for each specific age bracket and are helping to form your child’s fine motor skills, or their thirst for new information, or their ability to follow instructions. Finding that healthy balance between engaging your kids and making it not too hard and not too easy for their age can be tough. They seem to be doing a good job with it. You can use the projects they send to inspire new ideas of your own so that your kids have other things to do throughout the month.
Our Recommendation
If you are always scratching your head trying to come up with things for your kids to do this can be your monthly godsend and will make sure that you’re doing your part to stimulate their creative minds while buying back some sanity for yourself.
