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Cooking with Littles: Raddish Cooking Club Subscrition Box Review

June 22, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Complimentary box provided for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I never really learned to cook while I was growing up. Cooking wasn’t really a strength for either of my parents (Corned beef hash? From a can? Sorry, guys…). It’s a skill I had to fumble through during the early years of my marriage (apologies, Tim) and it’s not something I want my daughters to fear in any way.

But cooking a skill that has to be taught; it isn’t intuitive. Being comfortable in the kitchen takes some practice.

So I was very intrigued to see a cooking themed subscription box for kids called Raddish (Get it? Rad dish?). Darah and I did an unboxing video so that you can see exactly what’s inside a typical box. Take a moment to check it out!

Understandably, my girls were eager to make the carrot cake first. We got out our ingredients, which were very beautifully listed for us in our laminated recipe card, and mommy, quite honestly, got overwhelmed.

Because I have the arms of a T-Rex, I couldn’t even capture half of the stuff I had to haul out and put on the table. I was annoyed; this was going to be too much work.

But you guys, here’s the thing: I went into this with the totally wrong attitude. I went into this project wanting to work at the speed I would work all by myself. I didn’t want to lay out all the ingredients. I didn’t want the girls to make a mess. I wanted to get in and out of the kitchen FAST. That’s my cooking style! And actually, it’s a GREAT one that I won’t apologize for having.

BUT

If I’m going to teach my girls how to cook, then I simply must slow my roll and get comfortable being a little uncomfortable. Cooking, just like many other skills we teach our kids (reading, writing, even using the potty!) take a great deal of effort on our part, but once we impart those skills, then we have given our children precious gifts that will last a lifetime.

Also? There are fringe benefits to having that special time together in the kitchen.

When Darah realized that she would be licking the beaters clean, she exclaimed, “Oh cool! We are clean eating!”

Yes, child. That’s a kind of clean eating that I can get behind!

So, yes. Cooking with your kids is messy and takes a long time. Getting a Raddish box doesn’t change that. But it does make some of the steps a bit quicker for you (recipe lists, recipe ideas, supplementary activities, etc.) and it certainly is fun in the end. I would order it again! 🙂

Rad Savings

Raddish subscription boxes are $24/month (you can get a 6 month subscription for $22/box or a 12 month subscripion for $20/box). If you’d like to get a 3, 6 or 12 month membership, your first box will be 25% off by using the code DELICIOUSSTUFF.

Animal Trackers Club Subscription Service Review

June 16, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Complimentary box provided for review purposes. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I agreed to review the Animal Trackers Club subscription box for kids because my oldest is particularly fond of animals. Her favorite cartoon is Wild Kratts (all about different animals in the wild) and one of her favorite things to do is to tell anyone who will listen all sorts of interesting and even random animal facts.

The Animal Trackers Club seems designed for kids over 3, but probably not older than 5, based on the skill level of the activities included.

Our kit came with the following items:

Introduction to the Animal Trackers Club
Animal Trackers Club Safari Lunchbox
African Savanna Information Card
Cover and Ring for the Safari Animal Photo Collection
Savanna Art Project
Savanna Animal Cards Activity

Each month your child will receive:

Animal Information Card
Animal Play Figure
Animal Foam Mask
Animal Magnet
Safari Animal Photo Card
Learning Activity
Art Project

So the lunchbox is a one-and-done kind of deal. The box is $11.95 plus shipping each month. This subscrition service is a bit less expensive than many of the other subscription boxes I have tried, and I think you get what you pay for here, as the activities, in my opinion, lacked imagination.

I will say that this might be a great choice for the animal loving-child who isn’t particularly fond of arts and crafts. I think I was expecting activities that were a bit more involved, when the reality was that we had a few worksheets, each of which only took a few minutes to complete, a craft that involved styrofoam (yuck) and a sticker activity that took about 30 seconds.

Now with that said, the animal figure and the animal mask that came in the kit were big hits, and the girls played with them for quite some time. So I could see this being a draw to the child who loves to form a collection, as each month you will get an animal figure and an animal mask to stow away in your safari lunchbox so that you can easily play all sorts of animal-based imaginative games. But the other activities will be over and done surprisingly fast.

The activities also seem geared toward those just learning letters and numbers, which will make them too old for the 7 or 8-year old who really loves animals and might otherwise enjoy the subscription. I think the target age here is small (3-5?) but for that age group, it could be a hit. It wasn’t a hit for us, but it wasn’t a complete miss, and I should remind us all of its price point again, which is lower than most subscription boxes for kids.

M is For Monster Subscription Box for Pre-Readers

June 10, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Sample box provided for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone. Affiliate links may be included.

Today I want to show you a subscription box service that is absolutely perfect for you pre-reader. By pre-reader, I mean kids who are starting to work on identifying letters and/or letter sounds, but who aren’t yet writing or putting letters together to read words.

This makes the M is for Monster subscription box not quite the right fit for my oldest, who just finished kindergarten, but spot on perfect for my youngest, who just turned 3.

The box comes with a list of activities included (as well as supplementary resources if you want to dig a little deeper. I really love that extra thrown in there!). And the activities are grouped together by the suggested week. Each week is like it’s own little present to unwrap. This might be one of my very favorite things about the box…you get to experience the joy of seeing something new every single week instead of all at once! That’s just perfect for a preschooler!

I have kept our goodies under wraps so that Layah can have the full box experience each week, but here’s a peek from M is For Monster at the entire contents of the May box, which should give you an idea of the types of things you might find in any monthly box.

We started with week 2 (I know…OUT OF ORDER!) because I really wanted to read that book and because it included scratch ‘n sniff stickers, which is something I loved as a kid but that I’ve completely forgotten about and have never purchased for my girls. They were loved very much! 🙂 I also noticed that they happened to be from Peaceable Kingdom, which is a brand I recognize as having very high quality products.

We also had a lot of fun with the strawberry beach ball, though we quickly realized that it should be played with OUTSIDE. 😉

M is For Monster boxes deliver very high quality, and very thoughtfully curated activities for pre-readers.

The downside? M is For Monster is on the pricey end for kids’ subscription boxes. A single box is $42.95. You can save a bit by doing a month-to-month subscription for $38.95 (which you can cancel at any time). And I did notice a coupon on their website for getting 50% off your first box (I think you have to sign up for their newsletter).

This is the type of subscription that you would probably only want for 6 months, or so, and that may be why they don’t offer a set number of months for an additional discount.

Bottom line: I think it is very much worth a try, especially with that 50% off coupon!

I’d love to hear if you’ve tried this box, or if you have tried any other subscription boxes that you particularly love!