We’re trying out Weekend Box, a box of fun crafts and activities for children age 3 – 8!
It’s always lovely exploring something new, and even though we had rather a full dance card this weekend, we managed to grab a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon to dive into this new box of goodies. Briefly, it costs £8.95 per box including shipping, and includes four themed activities to Make, Bake, Explore, and More! You can read a bit more about it here.
By the way, I’d like to apologize in advance for the photos. The weather was grey, dark, and miserable, so we had to have the kitchen lights on. It’s very nice to see what we’re doing, but overhead LED spotlights are not particularly conducive to nicely-lit pictures!
Anyway, the box arrived through the mailbox – no trips to the sorting office!
Doesn’t it look cheerful and colourful? And it’s addressed to the child. Everyone loves receiving their own mail!
The inside is also beautifully illustrated, and shows you the four characters who guide you through the activities.
Lots of goodies inside. Four little bags, each containing a different activity, plus stickers, theme guide and activity cards. There are also two mysterious sticks. You’ll find out what those are for later!
This month’s theme is Ancient Egyptians. Little C was very pleased with this as she has rather a good book about the Ancient Egyptians (complete with gruesome bits about mummification!) so it was a familiar subject.
The Egyptian Collar Necklace was the first activity Little C landed on.
I drew the collar shape from the gold card included, as it was a little tricky getting it right, as there wasn’t a template. Then Little C started the decoration: cutting out bits of tinfoil, placing the jewel stickers, and then getting out the coloured pens to add more embellishment. Conveniently, there was a glue stick included in the box!
There was also some lovely gold string to attach to make it into a proper necklace.
The finished product!
Next up, making an Egyptian Sistrum, a musical instrument. (Click here for more about the sistrum.)
Sticking the yellow paper to some cardboard (fortunately the recycling hadn’t gone out!) was pretty easy, but the cutting out of the handle template was a bit tricky. As cardboard is remarkably tricky to cut through I did that bit!
Making the part than held the bells was much easier. It involved cutting a strip of yellow card, cutting slits to attach it to the handles, then making some holes to thread the lovely gold pipe cleaner! (Those Letterbox Lab pencils come in handy!)
Threading the bells was fiddly but simple.
Doesn’t it look good? And it makes a lovely tinkling sound.
Finally, we got to do the baking part. Honey Biscuits, yummy!
We needed to provide butter, egg, and some vanilla, and the honey, flour, and sugar came in the activity bag.
I found a small baking sheet so the cookies (the recipe was for four) didn’t look too lonely!
The butter was a bit hard, as I forgot to take it out of the fridge ahead of time, so I did the creaming of the butter and sugar – quite hard work! At least I remembered to turn on the oven before we started.
Little C broke the egg and mixed it with vanilla, then added the honey and flour to the butter and sugar mixture.
It made a pretty good roll-able dough! Little C also managed to make five cookies instead of four, so it felt like we had extra, even if the quantities were the same.
Oh, and the dough tasted pretty good too!
Into the oven they went, and while they were baking we did the last activity.
A Mini Egyptian Scroll.
Everyone knows the trick to making paper look old: tea! A teabag was conveniently included in the activity bag.
Now, according to the instructions, the tea-soaked paper could take quite a while to dry. By this time we were getting a little close to suppertime, so I decided to get creative.
Yep, I put it in the oven with the cookies.
It worked perfectly, took about three minutes to dry! (The cookies look good, huh?)
The baked dry paper was trimmed down, then we used the glue to stick the two sticks (remember those?) to the edges. It was tightly rolled up at both ends to attach the paper all round the sticks, then it was ready to add some hieroglyphs.
We looked up the hieroglyphic alphabet (thank you Google) and then she also added the the symbols on the instructions card.
The scroll was rolled up again and secured with the string, and the activities were complete!
Oh, and those cookies?
They were delicious! I looked up the full-size recipe and we’re definitely going to be making these again!
Well, we thoroughly enjoyed the activities in this box. The theme was fun and engaging, and pleasingly neutral. There were a few things you needed to provide yourself, but nothing you wouldn’t have around the house, such as scissors and tape.
As well as the activities there is some colouring, a comic strip, plus fun facts and trivia, so everyone gets to learn something! I also like the combination of structured and free creativity.
We were a little constrained timewise, so whizzed through everything quite fast, but I think you could spend a very happy afternoon with these activities. There are also further crafting and creative ideas on their blog. If you take your time you could probably make it last through the weekend, especially if you bake more cookies!
I really like the idea of activity boxes. Everything is planned out for you, you’ve got great step-by-step instructions, and it’s a lovely way to have fun with your child! At less than £9 per box, fortnightly or monthly, this is a fantastic budget option; you get plenty to do without breaking the bank. No hassle of planning or spending ages thinking up how on earth you can keep your child amused, just a lovely way to have fun together!
PS If you decide to sign up, feel free to use my referral code: MERITH29619
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A different version of this review was first published on allsubscriptionboxes.co.uk.
