Ivy Kids Kits Review July 2024

Ivy Kids Kits creates book-inspired STEAM kits for children ages 3-8. Every kit includes a highly-rated children’s book plus 12-15 fun & unique activities that encourage the development of math, literacy, science, art, & engineering skills through exploration and hands-on play.

They kindly sent us this box for review.

I’m always amazed by how many unique and creative activities are included in each box. Ivy Kids Kits knows how to take one theme and really dive deep into that topic. But, it’s great because the activities are varied so there’s lots of versatility and engagement opportunities for all different learning styles. This box (like always!) was brimming with supplies and activities.

Ivy Kids Kits Subscription Details

Ivy Kids Kits offer a variety of subscription options including monthly, 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, and 12-month subscriptions. There’s also the option to purchase a one-off box as a gift and to purchase past boxes if you wish.

Subscriptions start at $35.95 with free US Shipping. Shipping is available worldwide, however, for an additional shipping fee.  You can add a sibling pack for $7.95 each, up to 4 additional siblings. This ensures that all the kids in your family can complete the activities inside.

Each box includes:

• A classic children’s book
• 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

Unboxing the July 2024 Ivy Kids Kits

Each Ivy Kids Kits box includes a book that sets the tone for the theme of the box. This month, the book was, “Blueberries for Sale,” by Robert McCloskey. The book is a Caldecott Honor book and is a special story about a little girl and a baby bear hunting for blueberries. I love this book and I especially love the theme!

This month’s box included 15 activities based around the theme of blueberries and bears! In this review, we’ll be highlighting 7 of the activities since there are so many, but we’ll include pictures of each one so you can get a sense of all the various activities.

Here’s a closer look at what was included in the July Ivy Kids Kits box:

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey: The adventures of a little girl and a baby bear while hunting for blueberries with their mothers one bright summer day. With its expressive line drawings and charming story, this book has won readers’ hearts since its first publication in 1948.

The activities in the box, are based around the theme of blueberries! How fitting for this summer season.

Blueberry Pie Recipe & Art Activity

Using the materials provided, kids can construct a blueberry pie. Kids can learn how to divide the pie into equal pieces, counting, and fractions. Included in this activity is an easy-to-follow recipe for blueberry pie. Cooking is a great way to have fun with little ones while practicing counting, measuring, and following directions. Love this one!

Planting Blueberry Seeds

Ivy Kids Kits included blueberry seeds, a soil pellet, and a small container for planting your own blueberry seeds. Kids will learn about the special conditions needed to grow blueberries, and about germination. I love how they also include questions to scaffold learning, such as “Where do you think these seeds come from?” and “What do these seeds need to grow?” They make it so easy to engage your kids while learning.

Mama Bear and Little Bear Picture Frame

How cute is this? They’ve included all the material to construct a square frame with craft sticks, the paint to decorate it, and two little bear cutouts to add to the frame. I just love this one! Great for learning art and creativity.

Where is Little Bear?

Using the adorable bear included, kids can play a hide-and-seek game with the positional cards. Each card has a label of the position the hider should use when hiding the bear. This could be on top, above, under, between, in front behind, next to, or inside. Not only is this a fun play activity, but it’s also great for building vocabulary, using descriptive words, and understanding positional words.

Blueberry Hill

This activity engages art skills, language arts, and literacy – who knew learning could be so much fun? Kids will use the paint dotter and paint and character cutouts to create a scene from the book. At the bottom of the scene, they can write their favorite part of the story in the space provided.

Blueberry Picking

I couldn’t get enough of this adorable tin pail! I know kids are going to love this activity where they use the pail and beads to retell the story of Blueberries for Sal and to play some fun games. Ivy Kids Kits provides a bunch of game ideas such as racing for blueberries. The suggested games engage counting, solving number problems, comparing quantities, and language arts skills. So fun!

Blueberry Bush

Ok, this one is extra creative – using the foam half-ball and pipe cleaners, kids can make their own blueberry bush! Then, they use the paint to paint the base of the “bush” green and add blueberry beads to the stems. But, there’s a math effort involved too (because we are learning of course!), and that involves using a die to “pick” that number of blueberries from the bush. Whoever picks the most blueberries wins the game! I just love how creative these activities are.

Remaining Activities

Here’s a look at the remaining activities including a blueberry counting game, building a balancing scale, finding and covering literacy games, making blueberry preserves, and learning about the blueberry life cycle. Amazing!

Ivy Kids Kits July 2024 – Final Thoughts

I’m always so impressed with what Ivy Kids Kits can pack into their boxes each month!  It’s honestly so amazing. I really appreciate that the activities are easy to do and don’t require a lot of prep work. It’s clear that Ivy Kids Kits thinks through how the box will be applied in the home, and recognizes the need to keep the activities simple and impactful.

It’s the perfect box to teach a variety of skills to kids of varying ages – from preschool through early elementary.  The activities are well-rounded and touch on a lot of skills spanning from math, language arts, science, literacy, and more.

One thing I particularly like about Ivy Kids Kits is the way they list out all of the projects and activities on the top inside cover of the box. It’s nice to get a bird’s eye view of what’s inside and to keep track of what’s been done and what hasn’t.

I mentioned in my last Ivy Kids Kits review that this box would be great for homeschool families, and it would, but I think it would also be great for parents to keep their kids engaged and learning – especially during the summer months.

Ivy Kids Kits Coupon Code

Don’t miss the chance to get 20% off your first box with code IVY20 at checkout.

-AYOB, Jessica