Green Kids Crafts is a monthly educational subscription for kids ages 3-10 that sends out 5-8 individually packaged science, technology, engineering, art and math kits.
My daughter was gifted the subscription by her grandparents for her 3rd birthday, which we just celebrated last week! I can’t believe I already have a 3 year old! Oh boy, here comes the threenager years! This mama is so not looking forward to the sassy comebacks. :-/ But I digress, let’s get into the box review!
Cost
19.95/monthly + $4.00 shipping. (Cheaper options available through their 3, 6, and 12 month plans).
What’s inside?
You receive 3-5 science and arts based projects.
Let’s see what we got in the April box!
The box was packed to the brim with all the educational crafts activities.
We got a neat little introduction letter from the Green Kids Crafts in our first box that basically entailed what will come on a monthly basis in a discovery box.
You also get an information card that lists all the projects inside the box! I like that you can see it right away rather than sifting through the box to see what’s inside. Just makes life so much easier!
Let’s get inside each project to see how it faired with my 3 year old!
Wind Powered Rockets
The concept of rockets is still a little too new for a 3 year old but there’s always the first time! Each project comes in its separate bag.
We liked learning about rockets and I felt it was a good introduction, although a bit too advanced for a 3-4 year olds. However, decorating the rockets with sticker was the most fun for my daughter. We used the provided star stickers to decorate our craft paper.
Our rocket looked a little too lopsided, but hey we tried! 🙂
It was definitely a lot of fun for my daughter to play with it as she mastered blowing through the straw and seeing the rocket fly! However, we obviously did not get into the advanced stuff of analyzing the distance the rocket travelled, but it is a great learning activity for a 7-8 year old.
Hydro-Powered Water Wheel
Another fun science project which can be a bit too advanced for 3-5 year olds, however we tried to work around by focusing on the basics of learning about the concept of energy and then building our water wheel.
The instructions were confusing at times, but the pictures along with them definitely helped. This activity requires an adult’s help, even if the child is above 5.
Followed the steps as seen in the pictures above to create our hydro wheel.
Our final project looked like this, and I am happy to report that we did get it to work when tested with water! My daughter was delighted to see the cups rotate when sprayed with water. So overall, it was a fun learning experiment! Although to be honest, I probably had more fun making this than she did. ha 🙂
Self-propelled Paddleboat
Another fun science project that in my opinion is more appropriate for 5 years+ kids. But at the same time, it was a good activity for my 3 year old to develop fine motor skills as she tried to build the paddleboat. All the items were neatly packaged in a separate bag.
My daughter enjoyed doing the hands-on task of applying the glue on the wooden pieces and I helped her out with securing the elastic for the paddleboat to work.
The paddleboat was relatively easier to assemble and my daughter used it as a bath toy in her bathtub. Both my 3 year and 1.5 year olds had lots of fun watching the boat paddle it’s way across the tub.
BONUS project – Solar Oven
A bonus project was included about the concept of solar energy.
We kept this one aside for later use, but the instructions are posted below to get an idea.
Verdict
Green Kids Crafts is heavily based on science projects and I am sure we’d enjoy this more when my kiddo is a bit older. I do wish that the age range wasn’t too wide at (3-10), as you really can’t expect a 3 year old to be at the 10 year old or vice versa. So I hope they come up with a smaller age range or a subscription specifically for the preschooler age. Overall, we enjoyed some aspects of it such as tons of opportunities to practice hands-on activities and perfect our gross motor skills!
Have you tried Green Kids Crafts for 3-4 year old? I’d love to hear your comments below. 🙂
