Kiwi Crates Bring Fun and Learning to Your Doorstep

My kids love keeping busy with hands-on activities, whether they're crafts or science projects, or art. While I try to keep a good stock of supplies for creative activities on hand, sometimes it's a stretch to come up with something new and put it together with what I have. That's one of the reasons we were so excited to get our hands on a sample of the new Kiwi Crates—activity kits designed to keep kids engaged and busy.

Created by Bay Area mom Sandra Lin, Kiwi Crates operate on a subscription service: for $19.95 a month, you get a crate of creativity appropriate for kids ages 3–7 delivered to your door. Themes include "Colorful Inspiration", "Dig into Dinosaurs", and "Growing Gardens".

Our sample was the Growing Gardens crate, the contents of which are pictured below. It contained three projects: a window garden kit to plant and grow beans and squash indoors, supplies to create our own one-of-a-kind veggie pots, and some recipe cards to write down the tasty creations that we'll eventually make with our vegetables.

My kids were so excited when our Kiwi Crate arrived, and couldn't wait to open it and get started with the projects. Let's face it—who doesn't like getting something new and exciting in the mail? The projects kept both of them occupied for hours, and there were enough supplies included in the crate so they could each choose their own projects to do with no squabbling. My daughter has been watching her beans grow in the living room window, and she can't wait to transplant them into our vegetable garden.

The Kiwi Crate is really well thought out, with clear instructions and high quality materials, and it's really nicely designed, too. The kids love the adorable kiwi bird mascot who appears on the crate and the printed materials in the kits. You can post your own photos of your creations on the Kiwi Crates Facebook page, too.

You can find out more about Kiwi Crates on their website at www.kiwicrate.com. Marin Mommies readers can get 25% off their Kiwi Crate subscription with coupon code MARIN25. (Code is good through August 2, 2012).