Aliceana is obsessed with building, she’s always drawing blueprints for her new inventions. A few of her inventions that I remember off hand, the computer that will give you anything you want, just ask, and you shall receive. Next up is the automatic hairbrush, it brushes your hair so you can do important things, like eat. She’s always asking if we can build crazy things, I mean, all you need are computer parts, and basic knowledge of coding, right?
Did I mention that I can’t build to save my life? We tried a simple balloon car experiment and it was this complete epic failure. I’m a creative type, not an engineering type.
So I was excited to see an advertisement for these really cute monthly STEAM themed crates called Kiwi Crates. I found a coupon code for $10 off, so I thought I would try it for $10 and see if it was something worth subscribing to. If you want to try too, sign up with this link and you’ll get $10 and we’ll get $10!
We had so. much. fun.
Our first kit was the arcade kit, so we made a mechanical claw out of wood, little pom prizes, and we went an extra step and turned the crate itself into the claw machine. The instructions are incredibly approachable for a 5-year-old with a little help from mom and dad.
The box comes with a ton of materials, the only thing we needed that wasn’t in the box was scissors. I’m sure if I went out and bought all of these individually it would cost more than $20 and I would probably lose my sanity and forget a crucial piece, oh yeah, and I would have to figure out how to cut little pieces of wood. $20 is a steal for this project, and I paid $10, so definitely a steal.
This was the first time she’s ever had experience with screwing in bolts, and she did it like a champ. Of course I told her the good ol’ “lefty loosey, righty tighty.” axiom to get her through it, and she did it correctly on each bolt. I should add each bolt was incredibly tight when she was done. I’m so proud, this kid is going to be building Ikea furniture for us in no-time.
It all turned out so cute, it didn’t take too long to make either. I think we spent about an hour on the project altogether, which happens to be the perfect amount of time for Aliceana’s attention span.
I enjoyed the kit and asked Aliceana if she would like a similar kit every month, and she excitedly agreed that it was a good plan. If you want to try it for yourself, save $10 with this affiliate link.
Written by, Brittany, the geek behind the blog. Sharing tips and stories from the trenches on navigating life homeschooling and homesteading as a stay at home mom.