I find that thinking of Christmas ideas for the children gets harder and harder! And it’s worth thinking about taking out a subscription for children as it becomes a gift they can enjoy across the year.
I thought I’d share here some of the subscription-based boxes that we have enjoyed over the last year. For full disclosure, there is one or two that we have been sent to review and where this is the case I will make this clear. The rest are all subscriptions that I have purchased myself for the children and that they enjoy.
Traditional Magazine Subscription
A magazine subscription is a great idea and there are some superb magazines out there. We really enjoy Storytime and we have been subscribing to this for around 18 months now. Em eagerly awaits each new issue and they’re all read multiple times. The magazines are advert free (hurrah!) and the illustrations and stories are wonderfully diverse. There’s also an email each month with additional activities and downloads which complement the magazine.
I really rate this magazine and the fact we are still subscribing 18 months on and it’s still eagerly anticipated is, I think, a testament to just how good it is.
The cat that writes back
I subscribed to Banjo Robinson on a bit of a whim over the summer; I seem to recall there was an offer on for the first few letters. The children LOVE this and enjoy writing their letters back to Banjo. H, in particular, awaits each new letter and they’re very invested in Banjo’s travels.
What I like about Banjo is that you can answer your children’s questions through a PS addition which the children really love. It’s a very magical experience and we can, of course, get to learn about all the amazing places Banjo visits. There are also additional activities with each letter such as a recipe from the place Banjo is writing from.
Hands-on Fun
This next one is a subscription box that we were gifted back earlier in the year. Little World Builder is a great subscription box that offers hands-on activities to build famous buildings. I’ve written a more in-depth review here, but I think it’s a great little set and the models that you make are excellent. It’s definitely for age 7+ in terms of actually building the models (D occasionally needed assistance with the trickier bits). The models have lasted well and the children still chat about them. There’s going to be a new subscription box out in January I think, and I will be checking that out I hope when it’s available.
Beautiful snail mail
There is something special about beautifully crafted mail and we have, in the last month, subscribed to Post from the Past and Letters from Afar.
Post from the Past features a letter from someone in history each month and there are accompanying downloads available to make a unit study. We have had our first letter this last couple of weeks and really enjoyed learning about Tchaikovsky and working through a small unit study on him. I am really looking forward to incorporating this into our regular home education.
We also, this week, received our first Letter from Afar. I have seen this for a while and thought often about subscribing but it was a Black Friday deal that finally convinced me. The letters are works of art and we will definitely be using these as part of our geography work to complete short unit studies.
All sounds good and youre right about a gift that last the year