Cricket Crate is the newest member of the KiwiCo family that’s specifically curated for babies 0-36 months old. Cricket Crate aims to lay the foundation for lifelong learning through educational toys, books and other baby essentials delivered to your child each month. The subscription costs $19.95 per month, just like the other crates from KiwiCo.
This month’s all about Grow With Me.
Note: Cricket Crate is available in three versions — The Newborn Pack is designed for babies of around 0-3 months old. It comprises a storybook, baby-friendly toy, and some reading for parents that highlights developmental milestones and other items of interest. This review covers the version designed for 24-36-month-old kids, which started shipping in November 2017. They are also launching an intermediate version for kids ages 4-23 months. Look for that to be available soon!
DEAL: Use this link to save 30% on your first month of Tadpole Crate!
Wonder Magazine
Wonder Magazine is full of practical advice and developmentally appropriate bonding tips, which are great for new and veteran moms, dads, and other caregivers!
There’s a parenting advice column and a brief overview of the magazine’s contents…
…as well as tips for play time!
All of the KiwiCo family of boxes strive to mix educational content with fun activities. Much of the learning is geared toward developing basic skills like motor coordination. There is lots of great info for parents to read — it really adds some insight into the growth your child is experiencing.
Because the target age for Cricket Crate is so young, the focus is all on providing information and support for parents, and the activities are geared toward providing quality bonding time between baby and parent.
There were also activity suggestions for some real-world adventures to have with your child, complete with ideas for tying in the lessons from the Crate activity.
Cricket Crate Bookmark & Board Book (Bonus Upgrade!)
The book for this month is entitled Cricket Too Little. It came with a bookmark.
The bookmark can also be used as a ruler. There are some suggested fun activities so that you can maximize bonding time with your kids.
Crickets are known to be small insects and in this book, the character is experiencing some troubles because he’s too small for a lot of things.
The text and the illustrations are very kid-friendly.
It’s a great starter book for young readers!
Even the fonts and formatting are playful! It helps the kids understand what the actions are all about. My daughter loves reading these to our 3 year old!
Cricket Crate Materials & Activities
Block Play. The first activity is all about building blocks! These blocks are intended to develop different sets of skills, including number sense, sorting & sequencing, and stacking & balance.
There are 5 blocks included and they feature characters, words, numbers, and colors.
The blocks have sizes ranging from small to big, perfect for stacking!
Speaking of stacking, my son tried it and he definitely had fun. The blocks can be stacked in ascending order, descending order, or even randomly — just like what he did!
Another use for the blocks is for introducing simple addition lessons.
It’s quite obvious that my son is having a great time playing with the blocks. Just look at that smile!
Also, they can stack all the blocks together and then count the images or box segments so that they can learn to count more than 5.
I believe that these blocks can also be a great way to teach kids about patience!
Growth Chart. The next activity is designing a growth chart. It’s intended to teach kids how to properly hold a crayon and practice hand eye coordination amongst others.
The materials are provided in the crate. There are tear-shaped toddler crayons, a coloring sheet of insect cut outs, and the growth chart.
The crayons are shaped in a way that the kids can easily hold them.
It’s a great bonding experience for parents and kids because it’s a joint project. The kids can color in the design and parents can help in punching them out.
The chart is a great way to measure the kids’ growth. You can even keep it as a memorabilia for then they grow up.
The growth chart already has it’s own design but it’s awesome that the kids can add their own personal touches to it using the cut outs they colored.
You can use either a tape or a glue for the cutouts.
The cut outs can also be used to mark the last measurement of your kid’s height.
Learning doesn’t have to be boring! Our family loves KiwiCo, including Cricket Crate, because they provide fun activities, complete with materials, instructions, and even additional tips. This month’s Grow With Me theme made it easy for us to teach our son about numbers and counting. He really enjoyed playing with the blocks, as well as coloring the cutouts for the growth chart. This subscription is really intended for 2-3 year olds who are mostly interested in just playing and having fun, so it’s a great thing that the materials are both fun and educational at the same time. It’s also provides an avenue for kids and their parents to bond and spend time together. We can’t wait for the next one!
What do you think of this month’s Cricket Crate?
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