I suppose, since this is indeed a sort of review, I should mention that no one sent this to me for review purposes. This, my friends, cost me the full price of the monthly subscription. And it's worth every penny.
I've done the crate thing before with other services and often was underwhelmed. This, however, is a crate Audrey and I love to do together.
I'd been considering Kiwi Crate for a while, but honestly wasn't sold on the idea until my Aunt told me about how neat it was and how my cousin's kids were loving it. My family, both immediate and extended, are great with education and I respect their opinion, so I decided to try it out. When I went to the website, I also decided to go ahead and add the add-on of a science book to come with each subscription. I prayed these would not be cheap and/or boring.
I couldn't have been more satisfied. The box exceeded my expectation starting with the books, which have been very interesting and engaging. Each box comes with the main project pieces, all tools for assembly and use of the project (I have not yet needed to buy or even use anything not included in the boxes). The first box we did was a paint pendulum which came with the pieces for the pendulum, the paint, and paper that was big enough so the pendulum didn't make a mess outside of the paper. There is also a magazine which includes a cute comic demonstrating the use of the principle theme, some explanations of how the theories work and a good selection of additional projects you can conduct using the tools that came in the box.
This month's Kiwi box was all about water. We built the water wheel and boat and then used water power to pull the boat. Kiwi boxes are also big on art, so this month's box also included a runny kind of paint, a straw and several scenes so that we could make splash paintings. The magazine project included animal cut outs that could be folded up and put in water, which would then loosen the bonds and cause the animals to unfold before your eyes!
All in all, this is a subscription I suspect will continue for as long as I can anticipate. There are box options for ages all the way up to 16 years old. The quality of materials is impressive. Projects can be saved and used for various games (suggestions are included in the magazine). And, of course, the best part is Audrey gets so interested in doing the projects that she is excited at the arrival of each box, around which I can often plan about 2 weeks of science and art for our school!