Kiwi Crate Review & Coupon – Water Wheel!

This month’s Kiwi Crate was the perfect activity to satisfy our kids’ obsession with playing with water.  Kiwi Crate is a kids’ craft and activity subscription and it comes with everything you need to complete a great project or two, usually a pair of crafts that can be used as toys or playtime props.  This box is geared for ages 3-7, and the projects are always age-appropriate, though some require more parental assistance than others. Kiwi Crate is the most popular craft and activity subscription box for kids.

Everything in the Kiwi Crate!

This month we are building a water wheel and splashing around in our own water table.  Kiwi Crate includes all necessary supplies for the featured activities, 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, scored, or otherwise prepared for you already.  The crate includes self-adhesive items or glue/glue dots if needed for the crafts.

An issue of explore! magazine is included in every Crate.  It is full of fun content that brings the project to life.  There is always a comic featuring Steve the Kiwi and his pals, plus lots of historical and scientific information relating to the current theme.

explore! teaches kids some of the science at work behind the project.  It usually includes extension activities and some simple observational experiments to learn more about the principles underlying the project.  Our kids love to go through everything in the booklet first before starting the main project.

explore! has read, draw, learn, explore, eat, and make designated activities.  Each expands on the theme of the box, whether it be through factoids, drawing activities, or recipes.  For parents, the activities 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)!

Every Kiwi Crate come with a unique Steve sticker — it’s like your merit badge for completing the box.

The second booklet that comes in every crate is the actual instruction booklet for the crafts.  Often it includes additional activities beyond the extension projects included in explore!  Between the three-part main craft, the extension projects, and the extra explorations, there is a lot to do in each Kiwi Crate!

Kiwi Crate provides an inventory of all the parts and supplies in the box, plus a handy breakdown of the potential messiness and need for parental assistance for each of the main projects.  Pictured are supplies for the three main projects:  the water wheel, the water table with floating boat, and splash art.

The construction of the water wheel was a great team project, since extra hands were helpful for securing rubber bands and adjusting the axle.  

The completed wheel with funnel attached.

The water table itself was a huge hit with everybody!

The inflatable walls helped contain the water.  We had towels handy, just in case.  The wheel, when activated by poured water, wound a string attached to its axle, hauling in our foam and cork boat.

The splash art was fun and simple to do.  The Kiwi Crate served as a walled container to prevent the ink from blowing out of the intended work space.

We were able to achieve a couple of different effects just by changing the intensity of breath and angle of the straw.

Black Silhouette stickers completed the portraits.

Kiwi Crate is always a hit with our kids.  The complexity and subject matter of the box is good for a both preschool and grade school age kids — the activities and instructions are generally very simple, but the kit always includes some factoids and extension activities that keep our older child interested.

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 ).