ur kiddos love to tinker. They love gadgets, widgets and thingamabobs. Even better?…they love building them from scratch, using spare parts they gather around the house. They’re imaginations are incredible, but mine is seriously lacking! I’ve tried the whole Pinterest thing, but I find I lose hours on end and still don’t come up with great ideas for fun projects.
Enter Tinker Crate!
Tinker Crates are from the makers of Kiwi Crate. They offer pre-made kits, based on age and interest, with step-by-step instructions. The kits can be mailed automatically each month or bought individually. They even offer mini-crates you can buy separately for as low as $9.95 per crate. We plan to stock up and have awesome birthday gifts to give the kiddo’s friends! Monthly memberships run $19.95/month and you can choose from the following crates:
- Koala Crates are recommended for kids ages 3-4 and will stir up a love for creating at an early age. These They offer individual crates such as Music & Rhythm, Story Time, Playground and the Arctic.
- Kiwi Crates are recommended for kids ages 5-8. They offer individual crates that both your technological inclined or your art savvy kiddo will adore. Kits include making Handmade Paper and Journals, a Farm kit, a Birds kit, a Coral Reef kit, Glowing Animals and so many more.
- Tinker Crates are recommended for kids ages 9-16+ who love anything having to do with Science, Technology, Electronics and Mechanics (S.T.E.M.). Tinker crates include the Rubber Band Race Car, Hydraulic Claw, Motion Sensing Spider, Fiber Optic Stars and more.
- Doodle Crates are recommended for kids ages 9-16+ who have an interest in the arts. They have crates such as making Hand Crafted Stamps, Stained Glass Sun-Catcher, Paper Lanterns and Hand-Woven Tapestries.
- Cricket Crates are recommended for kids ages 0-2. As of August, 2016 they are not yet available for your little bundles of joy. However, you can sign up on the website to receive an email as soon as they are!
Based on our kiddos interests and age we chose to sign up for the Tinker Crate. Our first kit arrived and it was a Build-Your-Own Rubber Band Race Car. Our kids range in age from 2-10. We assembled the car during the two-year-old’s naptime, but he helped release the car once it was built. It was great letting the older kids take turns reading instructions and building each step. It promoted team-work, helped work on a little summer-time reading (home-school win!) and was so much fun! And yes, mom and dad totally got into it!
The materials are great quality and the instructions very clear. Once our car was built we went down the street to our “race-course” and let each kid have a go to see who could get the car to fly the farthest!
If you’re not sure you want to commit to a monthly subscription, you can try it for one month and even get $10 off your first crate by ordering through this link! Enjoy!
P.S. Our next kit just came in the mail and it’s a 3D viewer…we can’t wait to build it!
