Kiwi Crate - Nature Explorer - The Caterpillar Years

Have you heard about Kiwi Crate yet? They are an adorable little company out of Mountain View California that puts together these INGENIOUS boxes (“crates”) stuffed full of activities and crafts and then they deliver them to your door.

I’ll admit, wholeheartedly, that when I first heard about them, I was skeptical and totally snooty about the whole idea… “Crafts to do with your kids, mailed to you each month? How lazy do you have to be to buy into this?! I can do that all by myself without a subscription service, thankyouverymuch!”

HA! I have quickly and unabashedly changed my tune.

I bought a one-time crate as a birthday gift for Emerson (which, by the way, is a totally rad birthday gift, and you should think of this idea first, for every kids birthday gift you have to buy from now until the end of time). I was first totally impressed by the packaging and how well they included EVERYTHING for these well thought-out, open ended activities. THEN they sent me a 50% off coupon to try the subscription service myself. Well…$10 for one of these boxes is SOOOOO WORTH IT. So it did it. I took the plunge and signed up for the month-to-month subscription package (which you can cancel at anytime, ONLINE, without having to call someone and explain why you’re canceling, UGH the hassle! So ya, no hassle cancellation = awesome). Can you tell I don’t have enough amazing things to say about this company???

Anyhow, our first crate arrived in the middle of the month, and I think I was more excited than Adelaide. We opened the box very carefully and took a look at everything that was inside. There were two activities in our “Nature Explorer” crate—Make a Lantern and Nature Explorer Box. Adelaide wanted to do that lantern first since it came with this snazzy star punch. (A punch!? It came with a star punch!!)

She seriously sat at the table for an hour and a half working on various parts of this lantern. Punching out stars, using stickers to stick her star papers to the windows on the lantern, layering the color papers together to make new colors, turning the battery powered tea light on and off and checking out her star patterns in the darkness of the bathroom, over and over again. She had so much fun! And days later we are still finding new uses for the lantern or new crafts we can do to use the star punch again.

The Nature Explorer Box was also pretty cool, but the goal of that activity is to get outside and explore, which has been tough since Adelaide’s been battling a head cold. She enjoyed coloring the stickers and when she has the energy to go outside, she’s been enjoying our nature scavenger hunts.

Here’s the video of Adelaide (with a head cold) explaining her color scavenger hunt finds. And yes, she’s in her Snow White nightgown…in the middle of the afternoon. HEADCOLD! Don’t judge…

What I am most blown away by, and probably the reason I have so quickly and passionately changed my tune on these monthly-subscription craft boxes, is how open ended these activities are. The two main activities that come in each box are just the beginning of a whole lot of activities that extend “outside-the-box”.

Adelaide has used the star punch to make her own constellations on construction paper. We’ve used the punched out stars to make a night sky in pictures that Adelaide has colored. I can’t even begin to describe all of the fun we’re going to have with that nature explorer box once I can get her outside again! It’s endless! And I LOVE, I mean LOVE, the simplicity of opening a box and having everything I need for an activity right there. No searching for supplies, no planning out the activity or craft, no inventing ideas. Just open the box, read some simple directions and have fun with my kid, learning and creating. WOW. I mean seriously. WOW!

Kiwi Crate has a referral rewards program, so I get to offer you a discount so you can check them out for yourself! Click on the link below if you want to try a crate from them for only $10!!!! DO IT!!! I promise you will not regret it. Even if it’s only one month.