Doodle Crate is a member of the KiwiCo family geared toward kids 9+. It inspires young makers to learn new skills and gain creative confidence through craft and art projects by teaching them basic and intermediate techniques of a new artistic medium each month. The sky is the limit, and crafts made from the same kit can be kept simple, or they can be made as intricate as the artist desires.
Though geared toward kids, Doodle Crate is gender neutral and also excellent for anyone (even adults) wanting a craft subscription. In our experience, this is the best “arts and crafts” box for older kids, tweens, teens, and adults – the end result is nearly always something you will want to save!
This month’s project: WOODEN CLOCK!
DEAL: Use this link to save 30% on your first month of Doodle Crate! (or Kiwi Crate and the KiwiCo family subscriptions Tinker Crate and Eureka Crate).
Doodle Crate Instruction Book
Doodle Crate tends to focus on a single craft and contains only what you’ll need for the project. This month is about making your own wooden clock!
The booklet has excellent, textbook quality background on the subject matter of the project. Every Crate is a project and a lesson in technique – when you are finished, you should have a usable hand-made item and a new skill.
It’s loaded with high-quality pictures and illustrations to both give you ideas and help you along, and they produce a video tutorial for each project, too. Doodle Crate is great for providing perspective and inspiration for their projects, showing examples of the medium in real life settings.
Handy tips are located throughout the instructions, and they always include some options for customizing your work using alternate techniques or additional details. This Crate is suitable for a wide range of ages, and older kids and adults can bring as much complexity to their projects as they want.
The booklet proceeds step-by-step, from start to finish, with detailed guidance the whole way. The numerous diagrams explain every step clearly and make it practically impossible to go off track. At every phase of the project, Doodle Crate presents several options to bring added personality to your work – and you are always free to do something completely original. After all, it is YOUR creation.
Doodle Crate Materials
Every crate comes with everything you need to complete the project (except for a few basic items from your home), as well as a booklet.
Doodle Crate Activity – Arrange Your Clock, Paint Your Clock, and Assemble Your Clock
The activity for this kit is quite straightforward and consists of relatively simple steps that the kids can follow, but there’s room for quite a bit of creativity with the arrangement of the pieces & the design.
They arranged wooden panels, having the biggest one at the bottom and the smallest on top. Each panel (the 3 biggest) has other holes so you can arrange and stack them on the dowel however you like. That leaves the smallest one on top with only a single hole.
My son started painting the wooden panels stacked on the dowel.
Using some tape, they added lines and kept some spaces unpainted.
You have the freedom to paint your clock’s face however you like! Just make sure to take off the dowel and set it aside as it is not part of the final clock assembly.
While my daughter cuts out the numbered clock face, my son is looking at the clock mechanism, and he prepares to assemble it with the painted panels.
They still went with the numbered clock face! I love how they formed the panels and the colors they used are perfect, leaving some unpainted spaces so that we can see the beautiful woodwork. Attaching the hands was a little tricky and I had to help with that part, but it was minor – this was a kid-led activity!
This Doodle Crate definitely teaches the importance and quality of being on time, and also, enhances the kids’ creative skills at the same time! It’s like hitting 2 birds with 1 stone! Having also the freedom to do whatever they want with the crafts gives them the freedom to decide on their own on how they’ll approach and do the project. The great thing with this crate is that they provided all the materials needed to make the project, all we need to provide are creative hands and minds to complete it! We certainly enjoyed every bit of this project, and just look at our majestic clock that sure has a spot in the house!
Did you enjoy this month’s activity as much as we did? Let us know in the comments!
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