Now that Erin’s started school, I try my best to include some educational playtime in our evenings and weekends. It can be hard at times, especially since her younger sister arrived on the scene, to do some of the activities we used to do when it was just the two of us, and I think Erin has really missed that undivided attention. In a world where we are surrounded by technology and TV screens, I always try and have just a little one on one time, where we can sit and read or play together, and I can help embrace Erin’s curiosity and encourage her learning in an informal and relaxed way.
As someone who has spent much of my adult life recruiting into STEM subjects, I have always been a little disheartened by how few females came through the doors when our vacancies came up. I have always told Erin she can grow up to be whatever she wants to be, and for me, opening her eyes to the prospect of careers in science and technology is absolutely part of this. She has a very curious mind, and loves to know how things work. Now she is five and in full time education, the amount of “Why?” and “How?” questions are rapidly increasing, and it’s great fun to watch her making sense of the world.
We were recently contacted by Wonderkid Subscription Boxes – an educational subscription box service for children, to see if we would like to review their Wonderkid Junior boxes. With each box having a specific theme covering science, history or philosophical topics, this sounded like a fun way to incorporate learning and provide inspiration for some of our activities, and I was keen to see what each box had in store!
Over the last few months, we have trialled two different Wonderkid Subscription boxes and here is what we thought.
What is Wonderkid / Wonderkid Junior?
Wonderkid is a quarterly subscription box for children (delivered in March, June, September and December) and is aimed at two different age groups – Wonderkid (suitable from ages 7-12) and Wonderkid Junior for children aged 3-6. These are of course recommended ages only, and younger children may also benefit from Wonderkid boxes with parental supervision.
Each box includes approximately 6 – 8 (4-5 for Wonderkid Junior) carefully selected, high quality items centred around a particular theme including quality books and games by top publishers and manufacturers, as well as Wonderkid’s own unique magazine developed to ensure both parents and children get the most from each edition. Past editions have included Ancient Greece, Space, Dinosaurs, and Insects, Bugs & Creepy Crawlies.
Our Experience
We were sent two boxes from the Wonderkid Junior range, and I have to admit, when the big yellow box arrived on our doorstep, even I was a little bit excited to crack it open and see what was inside. Erin loves ‘unboxing’ and surprises, so enjoyed tearing open the tissue paper to reveal the goodies nestled inside.
Our First Theme – Space
For our first Wonderkid Junior box the theme was Space. Erin has recently learnt a lot about space in reception at school, including her frequent rendition of ‘The Planets Song’ (which mostly gets sung in the bath), so she was very excited to see that this was the theme of her first box, and quickly started exploring the contents within.
As featured in our images above and below, our box contained:
- A bespoke Wonderkid magazine with puzzles, games, activities and learning concepts – this was a great way of introducing this quarter’s box, and to help us parents or guardians find fun ways of engaging with our children using the contents. The magazine also contained puzzles, learning hints and activities.
- Two paperback story books – ‘On the Moon’ and ‘The Way Back Home’ – the latter of which is by the author of one of Erin’s favourite books “The day the crayons quit” – she immediately recognised the author’s drawing and text style so was quite excited about this one.
- An interactive lift the flap book – ‘Look Inside Space’ – a very educational Osbourne book with flaps revealing lots of hidden secrets about rockets, space stations and planets. A great book for us to read together.
- The Usborne Space sticker book – a great independent activity; this book is packed full of stickers which can be added to a number of different beautifully illustrated background pages to create their own space scene. A fun way of bringing out your child’s imagination, Erin has always been a huge fan of sticker books, and this one didn’t disappoint.
- Activity wise, this Space themed Wonderkid Junior box also contained game called Space Snap – a fun traditional card game featuring all the different planets and lots of space related items! Not only is Space Snap a fun activity to entertain your child, but brings in a bit of discreet learning to playtime.
- Finally, and something really different in our space themed Wonderkid Junior box was the Freeze Dried Astronaut snacks. This was a real conversation starter, and I was able to talk to Erin about how astronauts couldn’t eat normal food in space due to zero gravity and all the mess that would result. I was able to show her the small freeze dried chunks of chocolate strawberry and vanilla ice cream, explaining how each one was frozen versions of her favourite dessert, and she was amazed at how much they tasted just like the real thing!
Second Box Theme – DinosaursÂ
With the first box having been such a big hit, I was excited to see what the second box had in store, and this time our theme was Dinosaurs. Erin immediately told me how dinosaurs ‘used to live on earth but how they had died and that we couldn’t see them anymore’. This again was a great conversation starter, and we had a little chat about how dinosaurs had become extinct and what that meant. I really loved watching Erin nod along as we discussed the different types of dinosaurs, including how each one looked a little different and how some were vegetarians just like her Aunty Helen! 🙂 We also had quite an eye opening discussion when she said ‘dinosaurs are for boys but I like them too’. I’ve always been aware of how much gender bias exists when it comes to toys and career choices, so we had quite an in depth chat about how boys and girls are totally able to like the same things, whether it be dolls or robots, dancing or maths.
This Dinosaur Themed Wonderkid Junior box contained:
- A bespoke Wonderkid Junior Dinosaurs magazine, with lots of really interesting facts and fun activities about al the different dinosaurs.
- 2 x traditional story books – ‘Crunch Munch Dinosaur Lunch’ and ‘Old McDino had a farm’. We had never read either of these books before, so these made for fun bedtime reading, with Crunch Munch in particular being a really fun story with a great rhyming lilt.
- The third book ‘Nibbles the Dinosaur Guide’ was a little more interactive, and a great one to sit and read together. With fun peekaboo holes so Erin could guess what dinosaur was coming next, and lots of flaps and surprises, this book was full of great illustrations and loads of fun facts about dinosaurs, presented in a really relatable and entertaining way. It even had their names written phonetically to help children pronounce some of the trickier species, resulting in Erin showing off to her Grandad all the different names she had leant.
- Similar to our previous box there were two extra activities in our Wonderkid Junior box in addition to the books – ‘My First Dinosaur Snap’ – a fun game aiming to match up dinosaurs with their written name – a slightly tougher version of traditional Snap but something that could put into practise the phonetic names she had learnt from the book above.
- Finally there was the ‘Glow in the Dark Mould & Paint Dinosaur Magnets’ kit – Erin was really excited to see this, having always been a big fan of painting and pottery. She was even more excited when she realised that the kit not only involved painting the dinosaur magnets with glow in the dark paints but creating them in the moulds first. With six different dinosaurs in the kit, this was also a fun way to reinforce the learning of different names as we created our masterpieces!
Overall as a parent I really love the concept of the Wonderkid Subscription boxes. I love the fact that there is a different theme each quarter and that if you wish you can keep this a surprise from your child, adding to the excitement at the point of unboxing. It’s great that the theme is always educational, building on their natural curiosity and teaching them things that they may not necessarily have been exposed to in their realtively short time on the planet! 🙂
By opening Wonderkid with your child and engaging with the contents, parents can be involved in supporting learning in a fun and entertaining way which doesn’t feel like a chore. For me personally, Wonderkid was a fun activity for us to do together whilst Neve was napping, ensuring some quality time whilst at the same time being confident she was benefiting from the activity.
Erin loved the theme of the two boxes we received, and all the contents were high quality and engaging. She loved the fact there was a mix of both books and activities, and plenty to keep her entertained over a longer period of time as opposed to something that was over and done with in one fowl swoop. In both the boxes we received, at least one of the books offered a little something extra than a traditional story book, and I really liked the element of interactive discussion and the conversations this created with Erin.
In terms of value for money, when bought individually, the contents of our box added up to around £5 less than the cost of the box itself; so whilst the stand alone box didn’t offer huge discounts as such, Wonderkid definitely took away the hassle of trying to source them ourselves, and grouped them into a theme which aided Erin’s learning. The Wonderkid Subscription boxes can also be purchased annually (saving around an additional £2 a box), at which point, the value of the contents seems to more substantially outweigh the price based on the examples we have seen. For that reason, the Annual Subscription option would be my personal preference, as not only does it offer quarterly surprises and entertainment for Erin, but saves me the most money in the long run too.
You can learn more about Wonderkid and Wonderkid Junior on their website here. You can also receive a 10% discount on your first order so you can give it a go for yourself!
*This is a collaborative post*
