More Kid Subscriptions and Gift Boxes We’ve Loved
Keke Pouch Subscription for $40: Kids are small factories of chaos. The constant stream of worksheets, drawings, and crafts is great for encouraging creativity and hand-eye coordination, but every surface in our house is perpetually cluttered. Rather than contributing to the mess, the Keke (Keep Every Kid Engaged) bag keeps every item organized. This frankly adorable, durable, handled bag has four activities in separate pouches that clip into binder rings, and extra storage pockets for masks or hand sanitizer. Every 12 weeks, the Keke subscription sends three new activities in new pouches to swap out. (You need to buy the bag separately.) Even though the activities are aimed at 3- to 6-year-olds (and some, like a simple puzzle, were too easy even when my son was 5), I love these bags for travel. I’ve been experimenting with different travel organizers to hold all my kids’ markers, stickers, and card games for travel, and the Keke Bag is the best I’ve seen yet. —Adrienne So
Lingo STEM Subscription Box for $40: Lingo was founded by Aisha Bowe, a former NASA scientist, and is intended to bring STEM skills to children who may have been underexposed. That description does not precisely apply to my 7-year-old, but he nevertheless enjoyed this kit. We tried In the Driver’s Seat ($75), which teaches you how to build a backup sensor for a car. Mileage will vary, and the kit is technically aged for sixth to 12th graders. However, my son and I found it easy to follow along once we figured out how to log in to the Lingo portal and access all the videos on his iPad. We followed the video instructions in the portal to learn how to build circuits on a breadboard using lights and resistors, and program to turn the lights on and off. I particularly like that it doesn’t purport to teach children coding via puzzle pieces or blocks but uses an actual circuit board and a real programming environment. Lingo also offers teacher support if you get stuck. However, I should note that while the kit contains all the hardware components you need to build the sensor, you will need your own iPad or laptop to access the videos and instructions. —Adrienne So
Literati Gift Book Box for $63: If you and your family are struggling to find reading material for your required 20 minutes of reading per day for school (that’s not Wings of Fire over and over again), I highly recommend a book subscription. We paid for a Literati subscription until its curation system worked against them. Literati offers book clubs that take newborn children up to their teens. Literati will send your child five books each month. Return any books you don’t like and pay Amazon’s list price for the rest. Every book was a hit, and each kid had to have every book in every box. For the sake of my wallet and our already-groaning bookshelves, I had to stop the subscription. You can gift a subscription or a one-time, age-appropriate theme box with a card, personalized stickers, and artwork. It’s a great way to expose your children (and yourself!) to wonderful new works of art or literature without dragging them to a bookstore. —Adrienne So
Sketchbox Monthly Basic Box for $25: Art supplies—drawing, painting, pastels—are the delight of my family’s life. SketchBox is a monthly box, and each month has a theme that’s put together by an artist. My daughter’s charcoal box was assembled by mixed media artist Nikoli Shaver and included a graphite starter kit, a small pack of media-appropriate paper, an eraser, charcoal pencils, and more. This box has an amazing value—the Nitram starter kit alone costs $16, and my 10-year-old spent several days sketching, tapping, and blending. If you’re unsure of where to start with watercolor or oil pastels and find wandering Blick’s aisles intimidating, these boxes are a great place to start. You can get a basic box for $25 or a premium one for $35, which has a higher-quality selection plus a piece of art to inspire you. —Adrienne So
Stickii Club Sticker Subscription for $12: My kids’ appetite for stickers is endless. I find them constantly, on the mirrors in our house, on their school planners and water bottles, and occasionally stuck to the back of my chair or in the car. Stickers are also an accessible way of supporting independent artists. Maybe you can’t buy a painting or a T-shirt, but a sticker only costs a few dollars and you can display it everywhere. For $12 a month, Stickii Club offers three different sticker styles—Cute, Vintage, or Pop—along with a storage sleeve and three stationery items, like a notepad, card, or stamp. The club works with independent artists and illustrators (no AI-generated art yet) to produce sheets of original designs. We tried the Pop subscription. These stickers are marvelous. There’s a huge variety in the sheets sent. Some are vinyl, some are transparent, but all are high quality and intricately detailed. The artist is also noted on each corner so we can look them up ourselves. My kids were delighted and traded them with each other like currency. I am now investing in Stickii folios (from $18) in the hopes that I can keep these just a little bit more organized (and sticking a few on my laptop while I’m at it). —Adrienne So
The Weekly Junior for $49: This has been a pretty news-heavy few years. Other parents may disagree with me, but my kids really want to know what’s going on in the world around us—in a safe, understandable, kid-friendly way, of course. The Week Junior is aimed at 8- to 14-year-olds, and my 10-year-old can now read it herself. Every week, we cuddle on the couch while they look at pictures and pick out which current events to read about, like the Olympics, or whether apps should have likes. It’s a great way to keep my kids informed without worrying that they’ll hear swear words in my podcasts. —Adrienne So
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