Thanks to Cooper & Kid for sending along a box for review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
We aren’t strangers to monthly subscription boxes around here. We’ve tried out a few dozen different types over the year, and find them to mostly be very enjoyable little boxes of fun. Cooper & Kid is a subscription box with fun activities for children, but this one is a bit different from other ones we have tried out because it is designed specifically for dads to do with their kids.
We were sent a spy kit to test out. Since it wasn’t for me to play with, I had to observe the process of Tim and the girls playing with the kit, and I noticed a few things that were particularly awesome, and a few things that were challenging.
Awesome Factor#1: EXCELLENT Design
The spy kit is very thoughtfully put together, and completely loaded with fun activities (I counted 5 different things to do) so that dads and their kids can explore the theme of the kit from many different angles.
Awesome Factor #2: Imagination Rules
You need to get ready to bring your pretending A-game, and I find that dads tend to be particularly excellent at this facet of play. There also seems to be an emphasis on adventure, which is another aspect of the kit that is probably going to draw the dads in a bit more than with other kits, which tend to be more craft-like in nature.
Awesome Factor #3: Great Memories
I know my girls will remember playing spies with their daddy for a long time to come. They play together all the time, but this was a new game for them! I’m sure it won’t be the last.
Now for what was challenging. Honestly, it was just one main thing: getting my husband to take the time to use the kit at all! Before I go on, I want to be clear: Tim plays with his girls all the time. They shriek when daddy walks in the door because he almost immediately starts playing monster with him (and if he doesn’t then they beg him to get started!). But I think the idea of having to read through a kit of products and ideas and then carry out those tasks was a little overwhelming for him, and so it took him over a month to do it, and it took me starting to nag him about it, which is never something I like to do.
Once the kit was played with, he said it was a great kit and very enjoyable and that he would do another one. But it was a hurdle to get him to try it, and even then he only got through 2 of the 5 activities! Obviously not everyone is going to have this same issue, but it gave me some pause about whether we were the best fit to become subscribers, personally. But with that said, the kits are designed to go out every 3 months, so that does leave plenty of time for dads to work though all the activities with their kiddos before the next kit arrives.
The Cooper & Kid kit can be purchased as a subscription, with the price being $65/kit. You will be set up to be billed every 3 months, but you can cancel at any time if the kit isn’t a good fit for you.