My Honest Review of KiwiCo Boxes

I recently had a chance to do the Rainbow Optics KiwiCo kids activities box with my two daughters.  If you haven’t heard of KiwiCo,  they are a box subscription service that makes and sends STEM or art activity boxes for all ages.  You can choose from buying just one box, or getting a 3, 6 or 12 month subscription.

How the KiwiCo Subscription Box Service Works:

First, you pick a line – Tadpole, Koala, Kiwi, Atlas, Doodle, Tinker, or Eureka. Each of those is for a different age group and/or interest. The science and art projects inspire kids to become creative problem solvers.  When you choose your plan, either just one box for a monthly plan, 3, 6, or 12-month plans at the cheapest at $18.50 per box.  The first crate ships in 2 days. Pause or cancel anytime!

Here is my Facebook Live video where I show you the completed projects we made from this box:

Since we got the Rainbow Optics box, I’m going to show you exactly what came in ours.    When you first open your box, you’ll find your Rainbow Optics activity guide.

It gives you a list of all items needed for any of the activities and easy step by step instructions with pictures to show you what to do.  It even gives a gauge on how involved parents are needed for each activity.

As you can see, there are a bunch of fun items, that we had no idea what they would do, but it was fun just seeing the potential in the box!

The first activity was to make a Mixed Colored Light.  Want to see the final product?  Check out this facebook live video where I show you how it works.

Next was the Projecting Colorful Shadows activity where you could draw any image with a dry erase marker and use the LED lights that come in the kit to cast shadows at different angles and see the different colored shadows.

Here is my 6 year old celebrating when she finished it and could see her and her sister’s drawing of a dog and fish – cast different colored shadows on the shadow box!  We also experimented with the lights and cast colored shadows all over the room!  It was really cool!

Last were the Rainbow Glasses.

Here is what I could show you using my camera of what you kind of see when you put on the glasses.  It’s actually really cool looking at the 3 LED lights with the glasses!  There are rainbows everywhere, and your kids will ooooo and aahhh when they look through them!!!

You will also find a bonus magazine called explore where there are more suggested activities kids can do to learn how rainbows work!

Hannah my oldest grabbed this and read it all right away!

What I LOVED about the KiwiCo Rainbow Optics Box:

• You can get monthly boxes and don’t have to have to sign up for multiple months.  That makes it easy to just try one box without being in a long term commitment.
• Each box costs at most $19.95 + free shipping.  I totally think that is a fair price.  It’s even cheaper if you subscribe and get a 6 or 12-month subscription.
• They often have sales where you can get subscriptions at a discount.
• There is a box for every age and interest – and these don’t have to just be for kids.  The Eureka Crates are for ages 14-104!
• These make an excellent educational gift idea.
• As a former middle and high school science teacher, these make perfect “lesson plans” in a box!  They aren’t boring, they are educational and fun, and are perfectly written with easy to follow instructions.
• My kids loved the activities that came in the boxes!

What I wish was a bit different with KiwiCo Rainbow Optics Box:

• Even though my youngest daughter was excited to have these activities at her fingertips whenever she wanted to use them, I’m not convinced that after we put them together, she’ll actually want to play with it again.  It’s kind of like a lego set – its fun to put it together, but I’m not so sure how much it will be played with once it’s together.

Good news is that KiwiCo often has promotions so that you can save money per box.  Right now they have an offer of getting 30% off your first box when you sign up for their e-mails over here.

Want to know more about other subscription boxes I have reviewed?  Check these out:

• My Honest Review Of Date Night In Boxes

• My Honest Review Of Kids Night In Boxes