Advert. Being a crafts blogger it’s no big shock that we do quite a lot of crafting at home and I’m always trying to think of new stuff we can do. The flip side of that though is that I’m not always prepared for my kids to want to get creative, we don’t have loads of craft shops locally that we can buy supplies from and actually if I’m honest then when I’m feeling a bit knackered I’m not as bursting with ideas as I could be. For that reason I’m really excited to be working with Trunkaroo today to share about our experience of their monthly subscription service for kids. Trunkaroo’s boxes are focused on STEAM activities – Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths and knowing our interest in all things sea based they sent us their Ocean Tales box which contains loads of easy ocean activities for kids, but how would we get on?
Firstly the boxes were a hit because they arrived in the post and when you are a kid anything that arrives in the post is somehow a little bit magical. After a trip out at the weekend my daughter fell asleep so as a treat I let my son open up the box and look at what ocean activities they could do together and what he could have a go at on his own while she napped.
At three and six it can be hard finding activities that suit both of my kids, my son is really into science at the moment while at three his sister is understandably still a bit more about colouring and just having a giggle with her brother. My son found the doodle challenge cards which he instantly settled down with and loved – finding out about different sea creatures and drawing the challenge associated with it (drawing a starfish with 11 arms) and I found out some new stuff too – did you know that in order to eat a starfishes stomach comes out of it’s mouth to wrap around the food and digest it before going back into the starfish? Gross huh?! But I know that’s one fact neither of us will forget in a hurry!
We did all the activities spread over a few days which was really good – unlike a comic which my kids can get through in 15 minutes we found a couple of things to try out each day, perfect for when they needed a bit of chill out time. The ocean diorama that they made was a great hit as both kids could do it at the same time and colour and decorate the sea creatures to their own abilities and it still looked really cool when we put it together. As well as the sea creatures to colour, googly eyes and the things we needed to make the diorama the Trunkaroo also contained some fabulous oil pastels to colour with that have plenty left in them to use again on another project.
I think the most popular thing might have been the Deep Sea Bingo – the kids enjoyed making the game and then playing it too – what’s more we could pack it up afterwards and put it in their room so they can play with it again, I enjoyed playing it too which is always helpful when you’re playing with the kids!
The Trunkaroo box also contained the Discoveroo magazine, perfect for kids that like to read a comic but filled with fun activities so you don’t feel like you’ve just paid a load of money for something full of adverts and posters (can you tell I’ve done that before? Yep, I’ve definitely done that before.) It had a maze, wordsearch and drawing challenge in it but my kids were most excited by the bits at the back, two different science experiments to learn about salt water and a cute octopus craft my daughter was determined to do.
As a mum I know that I can do lots of activities with my kids, but it was such a nice change to receive a box full of ideas and all the materials we needed to have fun without having to hunt round loads of shops or wait a week for a delivery. Having activities they could both do together meant that we could all have fun – and a lot less bickering! Creativity while learning too – what’s not to love?!
I love this, it isn’t always easy to come up with crafts and ideas to do with your children so anything that gives inspiration and most of all the components to craft is a winner in my book.
I love Trunkaroo. anything that gets kids creating is great in my book. Especially for non-crafty families