While I love planning learning activities for my kids, sometimes I’m just plain busy. It’s nice to have some go-to resources that are already made for me. Ones that involve little or no preparation or planning on my part. Ones that I can just pull out on a whim for some meaningful learning time. Sounds dreamy, right?! I know that many of you feel the same way.
A monthly subscription box for kids can super helpful for these situations. I was recently introduced to Ivy Kids kits, and I’m thrilled they are sponsoring today’s post so I can give you a quick glimpse inside of one of their kits and how we used it. There’s also a discount offer at the end of the post if you want to try Ivy Kids, too!
The creator of Ivy Kids is a former teacher and mother of three, so she knows from experience what works best when teaching young learners. The kits are inspired by a favorite picture book, and you get a full copy of the book as well as discussion questions. Each kit is full of hands-on activities that cover a variety of skill areas like math, reading, writing, science, sensory play, art, and more.
It’s clear she also knows a bit about organization, and she’s made this super easy for busy mamas! First nearly everything we needed to do the activities was included…and I mean everything right down to the pencil for writing. All I had to grab for the kit we had was a plastic bin and some water.
I personally adore that each set of activities is sent in its own bag all tucked neatly inside a handy box that we saved for storing the items. This made it very easy to pull out what we wanted to work on each day while saving the other items for later. You can see a glimpse of what was inside our A House for Hermit Crab kit below.
Within our box we had fourteen activities. The kits are designed for kids ages 3-8, and each instruction page give you ideas for modifying based on your child’s age range. My preschooler and I did these activities together as part of her after school playtime.
First chose the Hermit Crab Race. The directions were easy to follow, and I love how this game encouraged comparing numbers as opposed to just counting.
Next she wanted to play with the shells provided in the kit. She spent some time exploring them independently. Then read the Shell Facts information and did some of the Shell Sorting.
We took a break for a bit and read the story. Then we used the Hermit Crab’s Year retelling activity to review what we had heard in the story.
Next my daughter discovered the Growing Hermit Crab, and she was eager to build her own Hermit Crab Habitat.
She set up her habitat. Then we added the Growing Hermit Crab and water. After a day or so she was so excited to see how the hermit crab was outgrowing his shell just like in the story.
These are just a handful of the great activities included in the kit. Not pictured are:
- Sea Animal Sun Catchers
- Hermit Crab Shell Science Observation
- Hermit Crab Body Parts
- A House for My Hermit Crab Art and Fine Motor Activity
- Seashell Painting
- Personalized Name Collage
Ways to Use Ivy Kids
I think Ivy Kids could be used many ways. These are just a couple of ideas:
- Home preschool lessons for a week of book-based learning
- After school activities for early elementary kids
- At-home summer camp to prevent summer slide
- Playful activities for babysitters, nannies or grandparents to do with kids
Get Your Ivy Kids Kit
Ivy Kids kits are available as a monthly, 3-month, or 6-month subscription. Extra materials for siblings are also available.
Subscriptions, past kits, and gift subscriptions can be purchased at www.ivy-kids.com. Use Coupon Code “IVY20” to receive 20% off your first kit. New subscribers also receive a free gift in their first kit and a monthly personalized item for the child each month.
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