Ivy Kids Monthly Subscription Kit Review

Published:
August 2, 2015

Sarah Shelton

Contributor:
Sarah Shelton

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Are you looking for an educational craft kit that gets delivered to your children monthly?
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With so many different subscription products available, I always wondered if the cost was worth it; if they were a good value, and what the quality of the products were like.

I am very excited to share with you about a monthly subscription service that we recently found out about! Ivy Kids is a monthly educational subscription box for children ages 3-8. 

Description from website:
Our goal is to make every moment with your child “quality time.” Have the tools at your fingertips to ensure your child has a solid foundation in math, literacy, and science. Help your child build confidence and be well-rounded in all disciplines to ensure future academic success. The activities in the Ivy Kits have been created by certified early childhood teachers with children of their own.

This description intrigued me; it sounded just like homeschooling –  without all the planning involved!

What sets Ivy Kids apart from other subscription box kits is that each month the kit is centered around a story book. Instead of receiving random crafts and games, you are receiving an entire box FULL of games, crafts, toys AND activities that go along with the book. It is a literature based unit study in a box! The best part is that all the work is done for you!

Each Ivy Kit contains a classic children’s book and over 10 activities related to the book of the month such as:

    • Bookmark reading guide
    • Materials to retell the story
    • A science booklet
    • Science experiment
    • Art projects
    • Math Manipulatives
    • Board games
    • Fine motor exercises
    • Literacy activities
    • Detailed instructions to scaffold learning


My kids were very excited to receive the box and wanted to be right there when I opened it. I was very impressed to see that every item in the box was shown in a photograph right inside the top of the box. The box that we received is centered around the book Jump! Frog Jump!

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We decided to use this box over the course of a week –  really digging in and trying the activities. Each activity in the kit is packaged together separately in a ziplock bag with detailed instructions on how to use the materials and tips for modifying it with different ages.

They refer to the 3-5 age group as a Little Ivys and age group 5-8 as Jr. Ivys. We were using this kit with a Little Ivy and a Jr. Ivy.

The first activity they wanted to do was to read the book and use the stick puppets. My Jr. Ivy struggles with reading and I was planning on reading this to both of them. She was excited to see words she recognized and she took the book from me and started reading to her Little Ivy sister! While she read, my youngest immediately started acting the story out with the puppet story sticks. This was a big hit!

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The next activity they wanted to do was the Lily Pad Line Jump, so we decided to do this one for fun after bath time! There are many different variations of this game with tips and ideas for the different age groups. They suggest placing them randomly on the floor and having your little ones jump from lily pad to lily pad while you call out the number they are to jump to. Older ones can jump and call out the number they land on, while the little ivy’s can practice their numbers with your help. My little one had her sisters to help her with this activity.

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My oldest daughter had to get in on the fun as well. She wanted to help with some of the activities, so she helped the little ones to line the lily pads up in numerical order. They all worked together to make a long line of lily pads. I love how these activities include number recognition, numerical order with sequencing and gross motor skills.

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We love finger plays with songs for preschool time. My littlest ivy was so excited to get her very own finger puppets. We played with these to the song Five Green and Speckled Frogs. The song lyrics are included with directions on having your children pretend the frogs are sitting on a log eating insects. Each frog jumps into the pond until there are no frogs left. This incorporates counting and subtraction!

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The next activity my littlest one wanted to do was Feed the Frog. This activity came with a green paper cup, construction paper already traced out for where to cut, pom pom eyes, a package of little insects, a die, big ft plastic kid tweezers and a glue stick. The instructions for the craft were extremely easy to follow. I loved how everything was laid out to cut so if you aren’t very creative or artsy you wouldn’t have any problems putting this together. The only problem I found with this craft was with the glue stick that came with it! It was a generic brand glue stick. The bottom kept falling off and the glue was not very sticky. We had to put the frog back together a couple of times until we finally got out an Elmer’s glue stick, then it worked!

With this activity, you roll the die and count the number you get. Then you have to feed the frog that many insects. Your little one then uses the tweezers to pick up the insects and count as they are going into the frog’s belly! This was a lot of fun and a little tricky at first. I loved how it addresses fine motor skills! It took a few tries of her not using both hands to pick up the insects. Once she got it figured out she wanted to keep playing!

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There are many more activities in this kit that we haven’t even gotten to yet! There is a letter jump game where you bounce plastic jumpy frogs onto letters and call them out. There is a Frog science booklet to read and learn about the frog life cycle, many different game suggestions for each activity and a really neat sensory activity to create your own frog habitat! I believe this kit can truly keep you busy for an entire month until your next box comes!

One of my favorite things about Ivy Kids is their sibling add-on option. With this option they will send you enough consumable materials to complete the crafts and projects for each child. My girls had no problem sharing the kit and taking turns. There are so many different activities with plenty of fun for everyone. The option for extra craft projects is great if you want everyone to participate at the same time with their own crafts!

We were very impressed with the amount of activities in this kit and how some of them are non consumable and can be used again and again! I like how they are individually wrapped and organized. Everything fits into one nice sized box that can be pulled out over and over again!

My favorite thing is that the entire kit is themed around a book. I think this kit is a nice splurge for a busy mom of many kids, who doesn’t always have the time to put together her own unit study, crafts and activities. We really enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to the next one.

Carrie is signed up for a full year! She took some pictures of her kits for you to see as well.

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There are 3 different price options for these kits:

  1. Monthly $38.95 with FREE Shipping
  2. 3 Months $36.95 per month with FREE Shipping
  3. 6 months $34.95 per month with FREE Shipping

I think the value of the product and the high quality justify the price for Ivy Kits! 

If you would like to try your own kit you will want to take advantage of these great coupons:
New Ivy Kids subscriber can take 20% OFF their first kit with promo code IVY20
New subscribers will also receive a free gift and a monthly personalized item for your child!
You can also purchase past kits in the store and get FREE Shipping with coupon code: IVYFREESHIP

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