Harlow went to a very progressive school in the city and their philosophy is to let the kids explore and create without a ton of teacher direction. Let’s just say, the art Harlow brought back from school was pretty abstract. Lots of scribbles, random brush strokes and found materials glued on larger pieces of paper.
This summer, Harlow is going to a camp where the teachers are obviously much more involved in the art work. She brings home a paper plate that looks exactly like a zebra or a construction paper pirate hat with no misplaced parts or scribbles outside the lines, and I pretty much know she had minimal involvement in the creation of these crafts.
Which is fine, because I feel no guilt whatsoever in throwing them out.
Beyond drawing, I haven’t done many crafts with Harlow at home because I thought she was still a little young. When Kiwi Crate contacted me to test out their Koala Crates with Harlow, I thought they were confused.
“You mean Mazzy?”
Mazzy and I had done a Snowman-themed Kiwi Crate last winter and I thought she would love their “Let’s Bake” Craft.
But no, they meant Harlow. While Kiwi Crates’ signature line is designed for kids 4-8 years-old, the Koala Crates are specifically designed for preschoolers.
Kiwi Crate aims to make it super convenient for busy parents to give their kids opportunities to explore, build and create by offering a subscription service that delivers age-appropriate hands-on projects to your door every month. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather spend my quality time doing the project than coming up with the project (and sourcing the materials), so this seems like a pretty good deal.
We got the Cityscapes Crate which includes all the materials and tools to create wooden city-themed blocks, a decorative bag for the blocks and painted skyline postcards.
Harlow was thrilled when I told her we were crafting together. She pulled out the “destructions” and looked them over so carefully, I was half expecting her to tell me what to do.
We made the blocks first which consisted of peeling off stickers and placing them on each side of a plain wooden cube.
It’s a simple task but it required great concentration from Harlow who wanted to get each one exactly straight. The task used up a good chunk of time too because there were 48 stickers to cover 12 different blocks.
The end result was pretty satisfying with a well-designed set of blocks that easily could have been purchased at a high end kid’s store. Meaning— I have no desire to toss it!
Harlow spent a bit of time playing with the blocks before we moved onto the next part of the project, which is another great thing about Kiwi Crate— most of their crafts are designed with future use in mind.
Next up was the sticker stencils which we used to decorate a cotton drawstring bag for the blocks. Harlow stuck the sticker stencils on the bag and then painted blue sparkly paint with a sponge applicator on top.
As much fun as Harlow was having (and she was clearly loving every moment), I think I had even more fun watching her experiment with new materials and seeing how focused she was on distributing the paint. Her mouth was pursed tightly in her “I’m concentrating” face.
I assure you, even though Harlow looks OH SO SERIOUS, she was loving every second of this.
After the bag was done, we moved onto the skyline painted postcards. In this instance, Harlow used the reverse of the stencil, which was placing the shapes on the paper wherever she pleased, painting over the entire thing and then peeling off the stickers once it dried.
I love how each activity was super simple but taught Harlow something completely new about positive and negative space.
The three crafts together took us about an hour and Harlow didn’t bore once. I actually think she would have continued playing and crafting but I told her we needed the projects to dry.
She was so excited to be making crafts at home and particular about executing correctly, it made me think— perhaps Harlow really did make the paper plate zebra?
Maybe I should pull it out of the trash.
Today, I am giving away a 6 month subscription to Kiwi Crate!
To enter, visit the Kiwi Crate site and tell me which project would most appeal to your child in the comments below.
You must be a Mommy Shorts Facebook Fan or subscriber to enter. You can use your winning subscription for Koala Crate (3-4 years old), Kiwi Crate (4-8 years-old), Tinker Crate (9-14+) or Doodle Crate (9-16+).
SPECIAL OFFER
For first time users, get an exclusive 30% off discount on your subscription using code SHORTS30. The discount will work on Koala, Kiwi, Tinker, and Doodle crates. Valid through 12/31/2015.
winner update:
And the winner is…. Michelle, whose daughter (aka destruction queen) would probably have the most fun with the castles & catapults kit – congrats! Please contact annie@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize!
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This post was sponsored by Kiwi Crate, but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Plus, if Harlow doesn’t like something, you’d know it!
Love the idea of the garden Koala crate for my 2-year old! Might be a little young still, but would love to challenge his abilities! And the music and rhythm! Shoot, maybe I just need the monthly subscription…
My daughter is SO into crafting and “helping” these days! She’ll be two in November and would LOVE the Music & Rhythm Koala Crate.
The Cityscapes looked so neat to me…but I bet my preschooler would love the Ocean Adventure. She’s so into The Octonauts right now!
My little guy would love the Music and Rhythm Koala Crate. He runs to play the piano every time he hears or sees one. And he sings all day long, making up tunes about everything he sees.
We’re visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium soon! The Ocean Adventure crate would be a blast!
My son’s “concentration face” involves his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth 🙂 He also calls them “destructions”.
I think both of my kids would love the Secret Agent crate.
The tinker crates look amazing! For my sin and me ????
My 8 year old daughter and 5 year old son would LOVE the Lets Bake kit .
I think my little I’ve would love the Fairy Fun! I have one entering kindergarten and one still home with me so this would be fun to do one on one!
My littlest would LOVE the Fairy crate; these would be such great activities for her to distract her from her older siblings/playmates going back to school in a few weeks!
My girls would love the Tinker Crate. They really enjoy different STEM activities. They’re always asking to do experiments they read about in library books. But the tinker crate projects would actually get done because I wouldn’t have to hunt up all of the needed parts/ingredients!
My 6 year old would love any of the Tinker projects, and my soon to be 3 year old would love the bugs koala kit! I’m totally sending this website to grandparents who ask for Christmas gift suggestions 🙂
My Stella loves anything that involves scissors, glue, paint and mail…she would be delighted by the entire concept. Adding fairies, space and heros would be the cherry on her glue stick…which she would probably eat even with the glue.
I think my 4 yr old would love to do the transportation crate!! She loves crafts and anything to do with building/creating!
Hey, this looks great!I’m a subscriber and I would totally love this same project you used here! It looks like a lot of fun and perfect for my little one to do while the older two finally go to school! (*happy dance!* =p)
Also I totally agree with the part you said you’d rather do assembled projects than waste time coming up with one.
I’ve been eyeing kiwi crates since a few years now but never got around to getting it.
doodle craft. I love their stuff. Trying to get them to be a vender for our charter school.
My 3 year old son would love the transportation set from Koala Crate!
My younger one would love Music & Rhythm and the 4yo girl would definitely pick Space Hero. We got these for awhile last year, they were a big hit!
my 3 yo daughter would love the bugs or garden crate. She is very into outside things right now!
My girls ages 3.5 and 5 would love the Science of Color kit. They are both avid science lovers and I do everything I can to foster this love for them!! Hoping they continue to love science in school!
Let’s Bake!
My girls would love any kiwi crate activities I’m sure! We have had a few crates in the past and they particularly loved bug tic tac toe, and most recently a tanagram activity where they colored on blocks with white crayons and dyed them different colors and then used them to create different pictures.
My 4 year old would love the Fairy Fun Kiwi Crate!
I’d really like the Koala Garden Crate for my lil guy. He loves to pick things out of our garden, so I am sure he would love his own.
My daughter would be all about the Let’s Bake!
The transportation one looks cool. Anything involving water would also be a hit.
I just ordered a Kiwicrate for my 4yr old but didn’t know about koala crate for my 3yr old. Love the kite idea. So excited to get our first Kiwi and would love to win for more!!
Definitely the music and rhythm crate!
My 3 year old son would love the cityscapes crate. He loves to paint and build!
Hero Cape
My boys would love the bugs and the shadow puppets! I need a kiwi and koala subscription so winning one of them would be awesome. Our middle son is currently being assessed for a possible spectrum disorder and crafts like this keep him focused and allow him to be independent and to feel good about what he makes. Our oldest is a craft fanatic! Love these boxes!
So fun! My girl would be a big fan of the glowing animals Kiwi Crate.
My little guy would love the Koala Crate Transportation kit!
My little guy would love the colors koala crate. Thanks!
My 3yr old would go crazy for the transportation crate!! If it moves, he loves it!! He always stops to look at trains, trucks, or (as he calls them) monster machines. He has this need to figure out what they do and how they work. Even if I don’t win, we will get this for him. I don’t want him to lose that wonder.
My son would love the transportation crate! He loves all things moving.
Koala crate FTW!
We would love this! My little girl is the same age as Harlow but I think she’d love any thing ocean related bc she’s currently obsessed with sharks! What a cool product.
Perfect for my beloved 7 year old is the Kiwi Crate. She is so artistic and independent. I know she would love it. Harlowe’s face while she is so engrossed is adorable. Anything in the Colorful Inspirations kits would thrill her since she loves making things pretty.
No idea why I put an E at the end of Harlow’s name. I think the internet did it, not me…
My daughter (almost 3) would love to make the glowing pumpkin necklace. She loves to wear jewelry! She’d also love the Ovean Adventure kit! Anything with animals excited her. Thanks!
The Glowing Crate
My crafty kids are 5 and 7! They would adore any of the Kiwi Crate projects especially the Fairy and Super Hero ones!! Thanks for sharing the information about this great company. Can’t wait to try them!
My son would love the tinker crate. This would be excellent for him. He bores easily.
My kids would enjoy the space hero one!
My daughter would love the Transportation crate. She loves all things that go, especially motorcycles, busses, and trains.
We’ve been subscribing to the Kiwi Crate for a couple of years, but now that the kids are a bit older, they would love the Tinker Crate.
My little girl would love the transportation koala crate.
My kids fall into the Kiwi Crate category, and they would LOVE the amusement park! I’m an email subscriber and follower on Facebook and Instagram ! Thanks for this!