Activity Boxes for the Older Children

I’ve always been a fan of subscription boxes whether they be for the kids or for me. I’ve tried so many of them and most of the favourites were activity boxes.

I try to get the kids interested in doing other stuff at the weekend rather than just sitting on their laptops or other electronics. The girls still like to play with their Littlest Pet Shop figures or Pokemon, and the Little Man likes his lego. But getting them interested in anything creative is really difficult. Boo doesn’t even like to bake cakes anymore *sob.*

Then the Little Man asked me if he could have another Weekend Box. I thought that he was maybe too old now as they are aimed at younger children, usually up to six years and the Little Man is now eight.

So I did some research and found a few boxes aimed at older kids which I’d like to share with you. We’ll be reviewing some of them in the future, so do watch out for that if you want to find out more.

The Weekend Box – STEM activities

The Little Man asked for a Weekend Box and he will get one. By revisiting their site I was thrilled that they now do STEM activity boxes for 7-12 year olds.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, the things your child learns at school. So, not only are these boxes fun, they are educational.

Example boxes include catapult engineering, bug catching and natural disaster simulators. The weekend boxes are delivered once every 4 weeks.

You can get your first Weekend Box (either 3- 8 yrs or 7-12 yrs) for just £1 and then £8.95 per box afterwards with free P&P You can earn money for referring others and points for answering questions or doing quick reviews. The points can be used against paying for your boxes.

Our review of these boxes will be published soon and I’ll link it here.

KiwiCo

KiwiCo has subscription boxes from 0 to 14 years! The crates go up in levels of learning,

• Tadpole – 0-36 months, explore and discover
• Koala – 3-4 years, play and learn
• Kiwi – 5-8 years, science, art and more
• Atlas – 6-11 years, geography and culture
• Tinker – 9-16+ years, science & engineering
• Doodle – 14+ years, art and design
• Eureka – 14-104 years, engineering and design

(nothing if you are over 105 though!)

There is plenty for all ages and especially my children, so we are really excited to be trying out these boxes very soon. You can read our review of the Atlas Crate here.

You can read our review of the Tinker Crate here.

The prices vary on the boxes you choose, and whether you pay month by month, 6 or 12 monthly. The crates cost from £12.97 to £15.26 apart from the Eureka box which costs from £19.09 to £22.91 per month. Or why don’t you try a free box on me, you just have to pay shipping.

Mel Science

Mel Science is a fascinating chemistry subscription box aimed at ages 9-14 years.

When you subscribe you are sent a starter kit which will contain all the equipment you will need to for your monthly experiment kits. You are also sent either one or two experiment kits per month.

Just a few of the experiments include, Tin hedgehog, hot ice, martian rust, galaxy in a flask, starch penguin and many more.

The Starter kit is free when you subscribe and each kit is £29.90, you can cancel at any time.

We will be reviewing Mel Science soon, so please come back to read, I’ll post the link here when it’s ready.

Geo Journeys

These are fun subscription boxes aimed at children 4-10 years to explore Earth and beyond.

There are two types of subscriptions Geo journey to explore Earth and Space journey. When you sign up you get an explorer pack followed by monthly packages with further adventures and countries to explore. They are in line with Keys stages 1 & 2.

What’s in the explorer kit?
Suitcase – personalised letter – map – travel journal – passport – stickers – photos – activity booklet – travel ticket on a string.

What’s in the monthly packs?
Personalised fact filled letter – 2 photos – fact postcard – stickers – activity booklet – travel ticket on a string – a souvenir such as a boomerang from Australia.

You can pay for 6 months at £85, or 12 months from £155. Or you can pay monthly £25 for the first pack and then £12 per month.

Letterbox Lab

Letterbox Lab promise every you need to complete experiments all neatly fitted into a box that fits through your letterbox.

They come in two age groups, the Explore Box for children aged over six and the Investigate Box for children aged over eight.

As I am looking at boxes for older children then it’s the Investigate box that I’m most interested in. So what’s in the box?

• 6 to 9 bigger and better experiments in every box
• 24 page full colour, illustrated booklet
• Series of 12 different science kits
• “Level up” badge
• Certificate and free gift in every thrid box

The Letterbox Investigate box costs £20.50 per box and £2 P&P

Mysteries in Time

Mysteries in Time is a history box aimed at kids aged 7-11 years. Aimed at teaching the kids history in a fun way, each box arrives in a cardboard time machine. There are two boxes to choose from a classic or bumper box. They both contain the same apart from the Bumper Box also including a craft and a history inspired gift.

The costs are £7.95 per month for the Classic Box and £12.95 for the Bumper Box. You can read a lovely review of this box over on The Reading Residence.

I hope you have found this list useful, please do come back to read my reviews.