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| My son and I have been doing KiwiCrates for a while now, and last year finally upgraded to doing the TinkerCrates. Tinker Crates are for kids 9-16. They are a bit more involved and have a fair number of projects available to them in the TinkerZine. |
When we first started doing the crates, the lad needed a lot of support from me in order to finish them, so I think it is just superb watching his confidence blossom. It admittedly took a while for my sensitive minded boy to realize that as much as mom LIKES building these crates with him, I also LOVED watching him branch out on his own with Tinker Crates. Now of course, there is no stopping him.
Recently he took on this project “3D Viewer”
It was great to watch him work through the stages to building it, step by step. He played close attention to the instructions. 
The instructions are so clear, and the images show the pieces exactly, so properly making the3D viewer is pretty easy to do “as long as you pay attention, make sure you tell them that part okay mom?”. So pay attention, don’t miss steps, and you can make your own 3D Viewer.
Slowly but surely it came together. Piece upon piece, fitting together just perfectly. 
It hardly seemed like anytime had passed and he was calling me “come see mom, come see”. And low and behold we had a 3D viewer.
Once he finished this big build he turned his attention to the smaller activities found in the tinker zine. Here he learned about perspective by looking at some art, and playing with 3D mirrors.
My son really likes the tinkerzines because “they tell you stuff, like more about what you just built, and teach you new ways to look at stuff”. “They give you good small projects to try too”.
After seeing how perspective was influenced by a 3d mirror he had a chance to try his hand at drawing within that knowledge. It worked! I’m glad he figured it out because I struggled with this one. He’s got a better grasp on the spatial aspect of things I guess.
To see this viewer being built, check out this video.
Anyways, Tinker Crates are a great monthly addition to our home. I hope you will consider them for your home as well. They are a great way to involve your children in a monthly STEM project and have fun learning. Foster that independence, learn some good science, you never know where it will take you.
In case you are curious, Kiwi Crates also makes crates for children of all ages and interests. Cricket, Koala, Kiwi, Doodle and Tinker. I am tempted to get the doodle crate as well….just to see what type of activities they put in them for artists to do. But so far, the Tinker Crates are a hit.
Now if you want to round our your experiences with Tinker Crates, NotebookingPages.com will be on sale January 24-26. Here you can find all sorts of notebookingpages to help round our your studies with the Tinker Crate. It’s worth your time to check out their lifetime membership.
Great review. We had the Early Explorers Little Passports for my 4 year old. While I liked some aspects of it, I was a bit disappointed considering the price. I figure I will wait till he is older for one of the other crates.
oh… when your youngsters get older, get Kiwi crates… they have a variety of them and they are just great to learn from.
I have heard a lot about Tinker Crates but have not tried them. Thank you for this up close and personal review – my kids have always enjoyed 3D viewer things!
I like them, but my boy really likes them, and looks forward to doing them
These always look like such fun and interesting learning. I just haven’t ever shelled out the dollars for them. But definitely cool projects.
if you watch for the sales they do occasionally and can get an extension on a subscription it makes them affordable.