Kiwi Crate Subscription Box Review & Coupon! – Treasure Map

Kiwi Crate is a kids’ craft and activity subscription and it comes with everything you need to create 2 excellent crafts. This box is geared for ages 3-7.

November’s theme was Treasure Hunt!  My son loves pirates, so the two crafts — a treasure chest and treasure map — were perfect.  Kiwi Crate is very good about, depending on your perspective, either making the kids build their toys, or providing crafts that are fun to play with.  In either case, there is always plenty of opportunity for guided and self-directed exploration.

Kiwi Crate includes all the supplies you need for two main crafts, plus explore! magazine.  You really need very little from home to do the crafts.  Usually, you only need a pair of scissors (which is sent to you with a new subscription!), but often the pieces are pre-cut.  The crate includes self-adhesive items or glue/glue dots if needed for the crafts.  This crate included stickers to hold the treasure chest together, as well as colored pencils for making the maps!

Each issue of explore! magazine  features a short comic, experiments and puzzles or picture or word find type games.  My son likes to complete the explore! activities cover-to-cover before proceeding to the crafts. Our daughter sneaks the book out first and reads the entire thing.

Every issue of explore! has a comic featuring Steve and his pals going on an adventure that fits this month’s theme. It has additional information and crafts and activities you can complete with household supplies to keep the fun going.

This month’s explore! had lots of great information on different kinds of maps and maps through the ages.  Kiwi Crate is great about incorporating useful knowledge and the acquisition of skills into its projects and activities.

The exercises, puzzles, and games in explore! are a great way to get into the theme of the box.  For parents, they are also a great way to keep your child entertained while you peruse the contents of the box and take a peek at the instructions for the crafts (it only takes a peek — they are always very clear and simple)!  I thought this box taught some very useful skills — kids learned how to read and create maps, including interpreting and applying legends, orienting using cardinal directions, and understanding spatial relationships.

There;s always a cut out craft to make at the end of the booklet, too!  This one was a Jolly Roger, complete with all the needed templates.  You have to supply some items for this craft:  pipe cleaners, and glue or tape.

This was the first time we’ve seen this totally new style of instruction booklet — it folds out, so you can lay it on the table.  It is similar to the “blue print” used in Tinker Crate, the engineering-themed box Kiwi produces for slightly older kids.

The instructions for the two crafts.  Usually you can do either craft first, but in this case it was best to make the chest first so you have something to find with your map!

treasure chest.  The pieces of the chest have precut slots, so they assemble easily.  Decorative stickers hold the

Cardboard braces were included to hold the pieces in place while assembling the chest.  

treasure maps.  Several styles of map paper were provided, so we had the opportunity to map several rooms.

First we selected a hiding spot for our treasure chest.

Then we observed the room and charted the landmarks.  This was a great exercise in both observation, memory (if you are mapping a different room than your map-making studio) and map making.

A set of X stickers allowed us to mark the location of the treasure and move it for multiple hunts.

Giving the map a try.

You wouldn’t believe how fun hiding your own treasure chest is.

Shocking nobody, our son found another subscription box (Mantry) to hide the treasure chest in.

He did a wonderful job haring the rooms.  He made this map all by himself!

When the kids took the maps on a hunt, it was fun to watch them orient themselves in the right direction and then follow the trail.  My daughter was hilarious (small photos, above) — she oriented herself and then walked backwards along the trail to avoid changing her orientation!

Surprise!  He found the treasure he hid!

bonus imagination maps activity.  Several extra maps were included for making maps from your own imagination!

Your could chart the ocean floor…

Or become an urban planner, charting a cityscape.

Our chart is getting a little full, be we like keeping track of our Kiwi accomplishments with the Steve sticker that comes in every box.

Each craft each in this month’s Kiwi Crate had a component for which adult help was useful, but it was still a minimal amount.  The crafts are thematically related, but they tend to emphasize different skills, so the kids get to engage and nurture different interests and aptitudes within the larger theme of the crate. Our kids love Kiwi Crate because it is the best box in the Kiwi family for them both to do (they are four and six).  The activities and instructions are generally very simple, but the kit always includes some factoids and extension activities that keep our older child interested. We were sad that the Steve the Kiwi coloring activity had been removed. We were completely happy that they dropped the silly “my” in front of the name of each activity.

Visit Kiwi Crate to subscribe or to find out more about this fantastic kids’ craft subscription box! Use coupon code MS30 to save 30% on your first box of Kiwi Crate (or KiwiCo family subscriptions Tinker Crate, Koala Crate, and Doodle Crate ).