Tadpole Crate Subscription Box Review + Coupon! – ALPHABET PLAY

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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 ALPHABET PLAY.

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 alphabet knowledge, including knowing the names, sounds, and shapes of letters!

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!

The book for this month is entitled Olive Gobbles The Alphabet.

Olive is hungry, but not for just anything.

She’s hungry for the ABCs.

Can you help Olive gobble up the alphabet?

While you read the book, you can also try the included activity with the kids!

Olive wonders what she should eat for snack time and she decides to eat letters. The illustrations are appropriate for their target age.

Someone is already mesmerized with the book!

The words used are short and rhyming, which makes it easy to recall.

Aside from the story, there’s also a spread that features the alphabet.

Everything in my box!

Activity No. 1: Felt Paper Shapes. The first activity is about building letter shapes using felt pieces provided in the crate. It aims to improve skills such as letter identification, problem-solving, fine motor skills, and matching.

There’s also an alphabet key to make it easier for kids to put the felt pieces together to produce letters.

The felt shapes are pre-cut, so all they need to do is put the pieces together. My son tried it out and immediately formed a letter M!

Next up, he tried forming letter J using a straight felt piece and a curved felt piece.

We also used the book as a part of the activity to compare the shapes.

We formed the word “put” with the felt letters and so far, my son is enjoying this activity.

Activity No. 2: Alphabet Munch. The next activity is the Alphabet Munch, where your child needs to feed Olive with the tokens from the kit. Aside from alphabet knowledge, it aims to improve a child’s problem solving skills, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination.

The frog has an opening at the top where the mouth is present, as well as a net to catch the tokens that your child feeds it. The tokens feaurures the letters of the alphabet, plus drawings of fruits and other food.

It’s fun because the kids can actually see the tokens going down Olive’s tummy!

You can get the tokens at the back of the board which opens up when you pull it.

Playing with this felt like the story from Olive Gobbles Up the Alphabet was coming to life.

Flip the tokens over and you will see different foods to match the letter on the front. This design makes it easy for my child remember the alphabet, as well as the food names that start with the particular letter. Love that they had such a great variety!

My son had tons of fun with it and kept feeding the frog!

The book is a great starter for this month’s Tadpole Crate because, aside from the fun illustrations of Olive, the texts are simple and easy to understand. As for the activities, both are challenging yet enjoyable! Putting the felt pieces together got my son familiar with various letters, and feeding Olive brought lots of fun as it is related to the story in the book. I’m happy to see my son starting to familiarize himself with the alphabet and we’re looking forward to more age-appropriate activities from this subscription!

What do you think of this month’s Tadpole Crate?

Visit Tadpole Crate to subscribe or find out more!

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