This
is my first review on The Mad Mummy Musings and it’s lovely to be able to bring
you something different. If you follow me on my other blog, Sophia’s Choice
then you’ll know I've had the opportunity to review some lovely products of an
eco, green, natural and organic nature.
Something I shared with my readers a few weeks ago was a ‘Weekend Box’ for children
aged 3-8 years from Weekend Box Club. And the opportunity to review a second
box for The Mad Mummy Musings has been made possible by Andy Stephenson the
founder of this great new venture. Andy began Weekend Box Club after struggling
to find gift ideas for his four nieces and nephews, which embodied the healthy
living, green and creative content that Andy felt was so important to child
development, so he decided to quit his job and launched the Weekend Box with
the aim of filling this gap.
The
idea is that every fortnight a Weekend box arrives through the letterbox with 4
activities; craft, cooking, green/eco/recycling and creative. If you are
interested in what we got up to with our first Weekend Box then take a look at
my post from Sophia’s Choice.
The
lovely thing about getting the opportunity to review 2 boxes is that we've been
able to experience what it’s really like to receive a box more than once. Reviewing
one box is great, but the second one gives you a greater idea of how things
will work and if you really like the idea.
Belle
was chuffed that a second box popped through our letterbox addressed to her. We
checked out what was in this new box and we had the following activities:
- Bertie Birds Nest Craft Activity
- Patchwork Letters Green/Eco Activity (put together by Groovebulb)
- Gingerbread Cookies Cooking/Baking Activity
- Sammy the Squirrel Story Activity
As
with our previous box, Tink and Belle were both able to get involved with a
couple of the activities together. Belle was then able to complete the rest of
the activities herself or with me as a helper. We decided to make Bertie and
his birds nest first and the girls thoroughly enjoyed painting, sticking and
making Bertie come alive. Both the girls shared this activity and dare I say it,
there was no fighting over who did what. This activity had enough to keep them both
happy which was great. A fun, quality chunk of time was spent with Mummy which
they also love.
Belle
and I decided that it would be great to also make the patchwork letters. Belle
decided on the word “Summer”, perhaps in the hope that we may actually get one
this year ! We decided on an appropriate font on the computer, printed the word
off, cut out the letters and then followed the rest of the instructions to make
our beautiful patchwork letters. I have to say that I personally enjoyed this
activity a lot. Belle became a little distracted at times by her little sister happily
cutting cardboard at the end of the table. I found myself in those moments
happily gluing on fabric to the letters thinking how therapeutic it felt doing something
art and craft based. Sometimes we are so focussed on keeping our kids occupied
and inspired that we forget ourselves and I realised how much I miss creative
pursuits which almost feel like an active meditation. Anyway, I digress !
Once
we’d completed these two activities we decided to leave the cookies for another
day and this is the joy of a box like this. Everything is there ready when you
are. You have two weeks in between boxes which gives you plenty of time to
spread the activities out if you prefer or you can do the whole box in a
weekend. The choice is yours.
We
chose to make our cookies the following weekend and both the girls got involved
in this one. As a parent I do sometimes find creative pursuits a touch
stressful when both of them are involved but the more we do them, the more I
relax into it. I divided up the steps for the baking activity and it seemed to
work really well. There was enough for both of them to have a turn at something
and then I was able to split the mixture so they could both make their own
cookies. We did have to add an extra egg to our mixture to bind the ingredients
together but apart from that everything worked perfectly and the cookies taste
yummy.
The
story writing activity is one that Belle has taken as her own. I haven’t seen
what she has written so far, but she tends to go off and make up her stories
when the urge takes her so I’m still waiting to hear about Sammy the Squirrel’s
amazing adventures. I’ll report back when she’s completed her masterpiece.
All
in all I really like the Weekend Box and reviewing 2 of them has reinforced
that. We've decided to carry on our subscription so we’ll let you know how the
boxes develop. The girls love anything creative so this takes the hard work out
for me and gives them something to look forward to every couple of weeks.
If
you’d like to try a box yourself then you have several options available to
you:
- The first option is a one off box at £10 each
- Or a monthly subscription where you get 2 boxes at £7.50 each
- Finally there’s a quarterly subscription where you get 6 boxes at £7.00 each; the most cost effective option.
If
you’re looking for a gift idea then Weekend Box Club do a 3, 6 or 12 months
gift subscription which would make a lovely present for birthdays or Christmas.
If
you’d like to give a Weekend Box a try then I’ve been given a discount code for
you, which will get you your first box for £5 instead of the normal £10. The
code is WBCHARLOTTE.
For more
information on the Weekend Box, pop across to their website: www.weekendboxclub.com. They
are also on Facebook and you can follow them on Twitter too.
Has
anyone else tried a Weekend Box? I’d love to hear your comments if you have and
also what you think of this idea.
********
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Thanks for reading. A bientot xx
Disclaimer: We were given a Weekend Box to keep and review for this post. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are honest, true and my own feelings on the product we tried.
I've never heard of a Weekend Box but they look great, I have a 4 year old daughter who loves arts and crafts and being creative with things, these look great!
ReplyDeleteEmily x
Now following from:
http://londonmummyoftwo.blogspot.co.uk/
Hi Emily. Great to have a new follower - thank you xx These Weekend Boxes are great fun. Both the girls have enjoyed them and if your daughter is 4 yrs old she's love the activities :0)
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