Mysteries in Time Subscription Boxes REVIEW
AD – Subscription box gifted for review
Over the last eight weeks, our family, like many all across the UK, have been trying hard to entertain and educate our children from home, whilst maintaining some sense of normality. This, to be frank, has been quite the challenge, particularly when it feels like our entire world has been turned upside down.
Encouraging my 7 year old to do school work from home has been really quite tough, with the distractions of her home environment making her motivation for education fairly low. I have found that the most effective way to encourage her to do any form of learning is to make it fun, so I was really excited when Mysteries in Time subscription boxes got in touch. A fun educational subscription service teaching world history for kids in a hands on and practical way, I was really keen to learn more about how Mysteries in Time and how it worked.
What are Mysteries in Time Subscription Boxes?
Mysteries in Time subscription boxes take children aged 7-11 on an exciting adventure through history.
Winner of multiple awards, including Made for Mums Toy Award GOLD 2019 and Junior Design Awards Gold 2018, this monthly ‘time machine’ subscription box is delivered straight to your child’s door and is a fun and educational way to them entertained whilst teaching them all about ancient times.
In each monthly box, children travel back in history to solve a mystery with two adorable Mysteries in Time characters, Max and Katie, who feature in their very own illustrated adventure story. Using the colourful history magazine included in the box, children can also learn fun facts about the time period and solve puzzles to help bring their new knowledge to life. Experiences, to name just a few, include Ancient Egypt, Elizabethan Era, World War 2, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.
The Mysteries in Time subscription boxes can be bought as one of gifts, or as 3, 6 or 12 month subscriptions, for which you receive a discounted box price and unlike many subscription services which tie you in, Mysteries in Time boxes can be cancelled at any time.
The boxes are sent out on the 23rd of each month and come in two different types – Classic and Bumper.
The classic box costs £7.99 + £0.99 postage where as the bumper box comes with extra craft goodies and a history related gift and retails at £12.99 + £2.99 postage.
Our Experience of Mysteries in Time
We received the Ancient Egypt bumper box, the first in the series, and Erin was really excited and keen to find out what was inside!
Even the box is impressive – designed to look like a time machine, it comes with a personalised sticker on the front with the name of who it belongs to. I thought this was a lovely touch, and I can imagine that Erin would be pretty excited to receive her own personal post through the letter box each month.
There is an introductory letter / leaflet for the recipient which includes a list of contents and tells you a bit more about how the box works.
Our Pack contained:
- World Map and timeline – this comes free with the first box only, but is a great way to track your child’s journey through destinations and time frames as each box arrives.
- Story book featuring Max and Katie and their Egyptian adventure
- An A4 history magazine packed with facts and figures, word puzzles, activities and 3 colouring in sheets.
- An Egyptian themed bookmark
- Colourful sticker sheet
- Timeline sticker
- Tutankhamun Pen
- Craft Bag including Mouldable Air Dry Clay.
First up, we unpacked the large world map and timeline, which is HUGE in size and printed on thick, high quality paper. This would look great pinned up on a pin board or bedroom wall as a poster and used as a way to track your child’s progress through history as each box arrives.
Bringing in a bit of Geography knowledge too, Erin really enjoyed looking around the world map and identifying the countries that she already knew, before trying to find the location of this months’ box, Egypt.
At the bottom of the map is a history timeline where you can encourage your child to add their timeline sticker as they explore each timeframe.
This bumper box included a beautiful Egyptian themed pen / biro with Tutankhamen on the top – this was a really nice addition.
The Ancient Egypt History and Facts magazine was absolutely jam packed full of facts and key details about Ancient Egypt and is presented in a fun, age appropriate way with lots of visually appealing illustrations. The text is easy to read, whilst still including important names and details and without softening some of the more brutal parts of ancient Egypt including how mummification works!
This was Erin’s face when she realised that the term Mummy wasn’t just something from Halloween and that it was far more gruesome than she realised!
Inside the information booklet there are also lots of activities to bring their learning to life. First up was 3 colouring in sheets, and my only slight criticism of these was that the shiny high quality paper made it a bit tricky to use certain pens or crayons on. I think it would be better if the colouring in sheets were on regular paper and perhaps separate from the main booklet for this reason but it didn’t detract from the fun for Erin at all.
She used some sparkly pens with glittery shades to colour in Tutankhamen after learning all about who he was and his crucial role in Ancient Egypt’s history.
Other activities included learning how to write your name in hieroglyphics and how to decode sentences. Erin really enjoyed this bit, having to use the little crib sheet to help her solve the mystery code!
Erin is a big fan of craft, painting and art work and therefore for us, paying the extra for the craft element in the bumper box would definitely be worth it.
The craft materials come in their own separate little bag, with some easy to follow instructions for how to make your very own amulets. Erin is familiar with amulets from watching one of her favourite Disney shows Sophia the First, but it was great for her to learn their original origins in Ancient Egypt! We then attempted to make our own using the super soft air dry clay, which hardens after using in around 24 hours.
We had loads of fun doing this, and it was also a great way to bring in some learning about colours as well, showing Erin what colours she needed to mix together to make purple and green. Erin made her very own scarab beatle and I even had a go at creating one myself! 🙂
Finally in the Mysteries in Time box was a reading book – Max and Katie’s Egyptian Adventure. The book is long and detailed, with great illustrations, and this is definitely something that allows the learning to continue over various sessions, reading a little bit at a time. Erin was able to read this alone at aged 7 with the level of difficulty being just right.
Our overall verdict of Mysteries in Time
Erin really loved her Mysteries in Time box about Ancient Egypt, and it was a great way to combine traditional and practical hands on learning methods. The contents of the box is high quality and you get plenty for your money, which can be easily spread out across numerous sessions. I do think it is worth paying the extra for the craft activities as this was a real highlight of the box for Erin and really helped bring some of her learning to life.
She became reality immersed in the story book and is already well over half way through, and it was lovely to hear her telling her Dad about some of the facts she had learned about Pharaohs, Gods and Mummification!
As a parent, I love the element of working your way around the map, as this creates an almost a collector type feel, with children keen to tick off the next destination and timeline sticker.
It was fairly apparent that Erin didn’t really see this as ‘home schooling’ at all, and was more excited to have been sent a fun box of books and games.
You can learn more about Mysteries in Time and their subscription service here.
Want to win a 3 month bumper box subscription?
Thanks to the team at Mysteries in Time we have a 3 month Bumper Box subscription to giveaway worth £37.35! To enter please use the Gleam app below. Our standard giveaway terms and conditions apply.
Mysteries in Time Subscription Box Giveaway
Giveaway opens 12th May 2020 and closes at 11.59pm on 31st May 2020. UK entries only. GOOD LUCK!
