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 Ocean Games.
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 also came with a bookmark. There are some suggested fun activities so that you can maximize bonding time with your kids.
In this story, the cricket offers a hermit crab to find a new shell! The illustrations are really cute, making the story even more engaging.
My son enjoyed the story a lot!
It’s an ideal book for newbie readers!
Cricket Crate Materials & Activities
Here are all the materials needed for the activities!
Sea Creatures. The first activity is about making stained glass sea creatures which you can either play with or put on display.
We need the turtle frame, fish frame, and paper squares for this activity.
This activity helps develop fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, matching and sorting, and identifying.
We placed them on our window and both look beautiful!
Ocean Sort. The next activity is about matching and sorting sea creatures into groups by color and type.
For this activity, we received a pouch and a mat in one. It can be used as a storage bag when folded and as a mat when spread out.
You just have to lay the pouch flat, put the sea creatures on top, and then let your kid use the fishing pole to catch them!
The pouch is secured by velcro.
My son had fun fishing!
This activity helps develop a child’s gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, matching and sorting, and identifying.
Cricket Crate suggests to level up the game by choosing one color card and one creature card. Then, fish only the creatures that match both cards.
It’s easy to clean up because of this handy pouch! We’ve played with it over and over!
This ocean-themed Cricket Crate gave our little boy hours of fun and learning! He loved the fishing game the most, but he also had a great time going through the board book and putting together the stained glass crafts. I love that there’s always a combination of reading and hands-on activities that can develop a child’s mental and motor development.
By the way, starting May they are changing the name of Cricket Crate to Tadpole Crate.
Other than the name change – and adding a new friend to the mix – nothing else about the product experience is different. We’re still dedicated to developing amazing products that are obsessively thoughtful, profoundly enriching – and seriously fun.
What do you think of this month’s Cricket Crate?
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