Last month, Gracen and I were lucky enough to receive a discovery kit from Sparked Kids Crafts. If you haven’t heard of them before, Sparked Kids Crafts is a Vancouver Island-based subscription service that delivers educational art activities, science explorations, and imaginative play activities aimed at 3 to 7 year olds right to your doorstep. Pretty cool, right?
Gracen was thrilled to receive a bright and beautiful package full of fun goodies and I was thrilled with how quickly it arrived and how professional the package looked.
Sparked discovery kits come with everything you need to complete several projects right there inside the box – markers, paper, pencils and instructions included! Our kit was pirate-themed and came with four easy activities… A folded paper pirate hat to make, a wooden treasure chest to decorate, a treasure map to create, and a popsicle stick parrot puppet to assemble.
Grae was super excited to get started and chose to make the paper pirate hat first (talk about taking me back to my childhood!)
Though the finished product wouldn’t quite stay on her head, for us, projects like these are all about the process. We spent time together, we worked as a team, and we had fun together, and that’s what’s important. If we wanted to, we could attach some sort of elastic easily enough and add the hat to her dress-up station for future imaginative play.
Next up, Gracen chose to decorate her treasure box. At first she began adding splashes of colour here and there and then she requested that I draw some shapes for her to colour in. She thought decorating a wooden box was a blast and I loved that Sparked had included high-quality crafting products for us to use.
While we haven’t had a chance to make our treasure map yet, there are already plenty of things I love about Sparked Kids Crafts…
1. It’s a Canadian-based business (yay for supporting local!)
2. It’s run by two moms, one a savvy mompreneur and the other a teacher (go moms!).
3. The kits come with clear, easy-to-follow instructions.
4. The materials included are good quality.
5. The activities included are not at all intimidating, not even for those who claim they’re not crafty (I promise!)
6. A single discovery kit contains several activities, which if spaced out a little can easily keep you and your munchkin(s) creating all month long.
7. Each themed kit comes with it’s own enhancement activities and recommended reading list on the Discover More portion of the Sparked website.
Overall, I’d say that’s a lot of pluses for a fairly new small business, wouldn’t you? In the interest of full honesty, the only thing I’d say is that I did find the activities in this particular kit to be a little… uninspired? That sounds too harsh. Perhaps ‘ordinary’ is a better word? I’m not sure. Now, I’m not saying that the activities were not enjoyable, because they certainly were. And truth be told, for the most part, kids don’t really care how unique or innovative an activity is, they’re just stoked that someone’s taking the time to sit down and create something with them. I guess I just felt like the activities were mostly things that I could pull together on my own without too much planning, shopping, or prep work. But then again, I’m an elementary school teacher, an owner of a handmade goods shop, and in general, someone who enjoys getting creative, so maybe that’s not a fair assessment.
What I do think is that a Sparked Kids Craft subscription would be an amazing help to parents who are super busy, parents who don’t have the time/energy/inspiration to pull together crafts on their own, and parents who don’t consider themselves creative or crafty. I also think a subscription would make an awesome gift, because truly, which child doesn’t love receiving mail?!
WIN A SPARKED DISCOVERY KIT OF YOUR OWN
Sparked Kids Crafts has generously offered to gift a discovery kit to one lucky Canadian Mama.Papa.Bubba. winner. The contest is open until Friday, March 29th and there are multiple ways to win (please be sure to leave a separate comment for each).
To enter to win a complimentary Sparked Kids Crafts discovery kit:
–> Visit their website and tell us one thing you like about Sparked Kids Crafts
-> ‘Like’ Sparked Kids Crafts on Facebook and come back here and leave a SEPARATE comment saying you did so (or previously did)
-> Follow Sparked Kids Crafts on Twitter and come back here and leave a SEPARATE comment saying you did so (or previously did)
-> Follow Sparked Kids Crafts on Pinterest and come back here and leave a SEPARATE comment saying you did so (or previously did)
–> ‘Like’ Mama.Papa.Bubba. on Facebook, come back here and leave a separate comment saying you did so (or previously did)
Obviously the more times you enter, the better your chances of winning. ☺ Don’t forget to leave your email address! The winner will be announced on March 30th and contacted via email. Good luck!!
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