Tadpole Crate is a monthly subscription from the KiwiCo family that’s specifically curated for babies 0-36 months old. Tadpole 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. Don’t be confused by the Tadpole Crate branding! This box was formerly known as Cricket Crate.
DEAL: Use this link to save 30% on your first month of Tadpole Crate!
Note: This review covers the version designed for 19-36-month-old kids. They are also launching an intermediate version for kids ages 4-18 months. Look for that to be available soon!
This month is all about DAILY ROUTINES.
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.
They always have articles about child development. This one examined emerging skills relating to math!
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 Tadpole Crate is so young, the focus of the text itself is all on providing information and support for parents. The activities in the younger age range versions of the box are geared toward providing quality bonding time between baby and parent, with the older boxes having slightly more independent activities and skill building.
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.
Tadpole Crate Board Book (Bonus Upgrade!)
We also got this cute board book featuring a frog and his postal carrier!
The book for this month is entitled Olive’s Special Delivery.
The book is so cute, and the kids will have a blast as Olive tries to do something nice for the mail carrier!
While you read the book, you can also try the included activity with the kids!
Olive notices how dedicated her mailman is, and she decides to brighten up his day. The illustrations are appropriate for their target age.
Olive beautified her mailbox by adding a nice scenic painting to it!
Everything in my box!
Activity No. 1: Quilt Dying. The first activity is Quilt Dying. We are going to make a special quilt so we can tuck our stuffed mouse to sleep.
These are the materials we needed for the first activity: the jar, mini quilt, and colored squares.
There’s even a bed to build for the stuffed mouse! So cute – it even has a headboard!
We put the stuffed mouse on top. It looks like there’s a stuffed cat beside him too! Then, we placed the quilt on top of it.
The stuffed mouse is really cute with soft stuffing and black stitching on some parts that made up its body.
There’s even a drawing of its cute tail at the back.
My son starts to dip all the colored squares in the jar.
He’s mixing the dark colored liquid now.
After he removed the colored papers, he dipped the quilt into the colored water.
He put a lid and closed the jar so that there’s no spillage as he shakes the bottle.
We took the quilt out to dry and I love that his finished product stayed true to the expected color. It’s a very light purple hue.
Activity No. 2: Daily Routines Board. This activity can be repeated over and over again so kids can familiarize themselves withon the difference of daytime and nighttime activities.
These are the materials we need for the next activity: activity magnets, magnet board, sun and moon magnets, and blank magnets. We can use a marker to draw the hobbies or added activities in the blank magnets.
We placed the sun magnet first and my son identified all the activities he can do during the daytime.
His brother is helping him with the activity.
The second batch of nighttime tiles is on the magnet board! He’s placing them carefully on the board one by one.
Here, my older son points out what his younger brother is doing. It’s time for the stuffed mouse’s bedtime!
He gave it a good night kiss as everyone would do when they tuck someone to sleep. Sweet!
The activities were age appropriate and just right to challenge the kids’ developmental skills. It increases their imaginative play and creativity. It’s also a chance for the kids to help each other and encourage teamwork or cooperation. The instructions were illustrated and written clearly. The activities were easy and fun to follow and this box was just super sweet! What a great way to structure your playtime with your children and give you some ideas on what’s next!
What do you think of this month’s Tadpole Crate?
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