I had two bored kids at home all summer and was sometimes reaching my rope’s end. Because of corona we couldn’t travel to Europe as we usually do to visit our grandparents. We didn’t have as many play dates as we normally do. We got tired of our pool without friends and refused to swim – I understand how first world problem this sounds! And on top of that I still had work that had to be done. OK, so I established that summer was problematic.

This made me look for solutions that would give kids something to do. The first thing I discovered was KiwiCo subscription box. The ads for it were all over my social media pages and I finally gave in and ordered a box for each child. Now I think it was the best decision I made this summer!

Kids fell in love with their crates right away. My 7 year old son got Tinker crate and my 9 year old daughter – Doodle crate. Tinker crate is for all boys and girls who are into engineering, building, tinkering and working with electricity. It always includes a project that has to be built and has batteries for some type of movement. Doodle crate is for artsy kids who like creating something and spending time on crafts. Both crates fit my kids to a T.

KiwiCo caters to kids of all ages, starting with 2 years and all the way of late teens. This is probably the best part, because you can always find something your child will like no matter how old he or she is. Monthly subscription is just $19.95 for most crates and $29.95 for a couple lines for older kids.

See KiwiCo Discounts:

• 60% Off 1st Month with code CS60
• $15 Off 1st Months Crate with code RAINBOW

You can subscribe for 1, 3, 6, or 12 months. You can cancel or pause anytime, so the choice is always yours.

There is nothing that my kids didn’t like about KiwiCo crates.

They did everything themselves and are still playing with everything they made so far – spin art machine, walking robot, succulent garden, soap, glow-in-the-dark pendulum machine, and vegan leather purse.

I signed up for 3 months initially and now extended my subscription for 3 more months, because kids ask about it at least every other day.

I think we will love KiwiCo for a long time!

Mel Science is another subscription service that I have been eyeing for a while. It’s geared towards older kids and consists of various chemical scientific experiments.

The best age for this box is 10+, so my son is a couple of years short, but since kids were always fascinated by experiments, I decided to go ahead and try it out.

This subscription is continuous, not month by month, so you have to sign up for indefinitely, but you can also cancel at any time. The box is a bit more expensive – $34 per month, but you can get 25% off coupon for the first month.

See More MEL Science Coupons:

• 25% OFF Your First Box with code MSA25
• Free Shipping on any Order

The first box brings a starter kit, which includes lots of cool stuff to be used for future experiments, such as goggles, macro camera for your phone, measuring cups, and things I don’t even know the names for.

After you receive the starter box, you will be getting a smaller box with chemistry experiments every month. I was very pleased with the quality of everything included – from packaging to directions and warnings.

The chemistry box had two experiments that could be repeated 2 times each. So far we got only one box and we liked it, especially my daughter. My son participated in work that required batteries, but he mentally checked out after that.

So it was me and my daughter who did the experiments with zinc in sodium solutions.

We saw zinc pellet grow spikes and also enjoyed watching electrically charged tin tree growing in a different solution with soap. Both of them were pretty cool, but definitely for older kids.

I saw many ads for Mel Science that had experiments that bubble and shoot up, so we will be looking forwards to something like that in the future.

This time it was cool reaction, but nothing giant.

Overall I have to say that I like KiwiCo better simply because they have something for kids of all ages and cost less than Mel Science subscription. When it comes to education, both subscriptions are STEM related, so kids learn while having fun. Mel Science can definitely benefit future chemistry studies, but KiwiCo also encourages curiosity, math skills development, generates interest in physics, and also leaves space for arts. For now we will continue with both subscriptions, but if I had to choose, I would go with KiwiCo.