Ivy Kids is a monthly subscription box that has tons of educational material for little ones from ages 3-8 that are developed by certified early childhood teachers. Each month, a kit is sent that contains more than 10 activities revolving around problem solving, identifying numbers and letters, building gross motor skills, literacy skills and math skills.

Cost

$38.95/monthly (also have 3-month and 6-month plans for lower price) – get 20% off your first box from Ivy Kids here.

What is included

10-12 creative, hands-on learning activities for your little one that revolve around a certain theme.

This month, Ivy Kids featured the book Dog’s colorful day by Emma Dodd. And all the activities and worksheets revolved around the book’s theme which was learning numbers and colors. I thought this was great for my preschooler (2.5 year old). We had tons of fun with this month’s box and learned so much.

As expected, the box came up fully loaded with lots of fun learning goodies as seen below.

I like how each thing is packaged in separate bags to make it easier for us to to use for that specific activity. Instructions as expected were very thorough as well. And again, everything that you need is included, even a tiny ziplock bag, so you really do not need anything on your own.

Let’s see what’s inside Ivy Kids January 2017 box!

We started off by reading the book which was super colorful and fun for Ms. H. She loved it and even my 1 year old enjoyed listening to the story. They had lots of fun counting the colorful spots on the dog in the book.

My Dog’s Colorful Adventure

We re-read the story and created out own story about a messy dog. On each page of the booklet, the dogts a new colorful spot. Ms. H tried to be really creative in her own preschooler way to come up with a reason why the dog got that messy spot. I liked how it required your little one to be creative and think outside the box!

 

My own Colorful Dog

Using the provided paint daubers, we decorate our stuffed dog to our heart’s content. I really think, Ms. H loved doing this the best. It was hands on, it required her to know her colors and just have lots of fun doing it.

 

 

Colorful Dog Puppet

This activity involved creating your own dog puppet with the provided paper dog along with sticker dots and a wooden stick. Ms. H loves stickers just like any other toddler/preschooler/kid so it was another fun activity for her. She is too young to actually draw out the eyes/nose/mouth, so I had to help her out. But once again, a great activity for reviewing colors with your little one.

Paint by Number

Using dauber dots, your child has to find the numbers and put the appropriate color on the number as per the color shown for that number. Each number corresponds to a specific color. This was great for identifying numbers, colors, using a key as well as matching the numbers.

Letter Match

This is a great activity for teaching uppercase and lowercase letter symbols to your child. However, in our case, Ms. H is only 2.5, so naturally she has not learned lowercase letters yet. But we did match the uppercase letters as many as she knows. I as a parent really appreciate the inclusion of this because I am in the process of teaching her uppercase and lowercase letters, so this will definitely be coming in handy quite a lot!

How many Spots do I have?

We did not get to try this activity as of yet as my child is too young for addition/subtraction yet. So I have kept it aside for later use.

Roll a Spot

In this activity, your child will roll the provided die and identify the number rolled. Then he/she will match the number that was rolled on the Roll-A-Spot board and place colored chip on it. We did this as suggested by the “Little Ivy Tip” – by counting the dots on the die and matching the number on the board to the number on the die. Will be revisiting it again once we have mastered our numbers thoroughly.

Sun Catcher with Wet Glue Painting

Another activity that introduces little ones to science concepts such as mixing colors, observing changes and noting them down. Ms. H enjoyed this activity as it was pretty hands-on and required her to really use her little muscles by pressing the glue into the provided plastic cover. She thoroughly enjoyed it and felt very accomplished looking at her final product.

Dog Race: Roll and Dot!

The concept in this activity was ismilar to Roll a Spot, as your little one rolls the die and count the dots on the die to determine the number that he/she rolled and then apply the paint dauber on the number that was identified on the die. This was a bit simpler than the above activity, so Ms. H was able to figure it out and get the hang of it as we kept rolling the die and matching the numbers with the dots on the die.

Patterns on Bones

This was another winner activity in my opinion. Your little one has to recognize the pattern on the bones board and repeat it till finished. Therefore, this seemed like a great introduction to the concepts of patterns this early on for my toddler.

Mixing colors in Water

This was a fun activity that revolved around science concepts subh as mixing colors, making observations and predictions. You have to fill the provided bag with 1-2 cups of water and then select ac olor and add 2-3 drops of the liquid color to the water. Close the bag and shake it to see what color is created by mixing the 2 colors that were selected. Ms. H really enjoyed putting the drops of liquid color and observing the change in water color as the colors were added. It definitely taught her the concept of color creation with mixing colors.

Story Retelling Cards

This is another fun activity that allows your child to recreate the story and sequence the provided cards in the same order as they appeared in the story. At this point, we had read the story way too many times, so Ms. H was quickly able to figure out the pattern from her memory and aptly created her cards sequenced just as they appeared in the book. This activity helps in building vocabulary, identifying colors and understanding the concept of sequencing in addition to being creative to come up with your own story.

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Verdict

Overall, this month’s box was a big hit with us! As a parent, I really appreciate the amount of effort put into curating each box that provides a very thorough and educational experience to your child. The worksheets are reusable as many times as you like, so it definitely helps in reinforcing the STEM concepts. 5 stars from us once again!

Have you tried Ivy Kids? Share your views in comments. 🙂

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