Green Kid Crafts: The Crafty Way to Get Your Kids Into Science

Green Kid Crafts may be my favorite educational subscription box for kids to date. Green Kid Crafts is a highly rated monthly subscription service full of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) activities and experiments. As a homeschooling mom who doesn’t really like science, I was so thrilled with the Green Kid Crafts box they sent me to review as an affiliate, that I have since subscribed to receive even more boxes. Keep reading to find an exclusive discount promo code for my readers!When I first heard about Green Kid Crafts, I totally thought it was going to be some nature filled box of poorly made crafting materials, containing products that were 100% green/recycled. Neither of those are true. Each themed box comes with 5-8 individually packaged science, technology, engineering, art, and math kits for kids ages 3-10 with step-by-step instructions. The materials are eco-friendly though!

The first box we received was a Detective Science kit. Inside were several different activities – a Chromatography kit (where we watched the colors in ink bleed), a fingerprint kit, and a secret message kit (that my kids loved!!). With several different activities, we split them up over a few days, which, in my opinion, is an added value.

Green Kid Crafts Detective Science Kit – Box #1

Green Kid Crafts: Chromatography Kit

This kit was as exciting as the others, as it’s a tad like watching paint dry, and some of the pens we tried didn’t end up bleeding, but it was interesting for my girls to see that the pens they use include several colors. It was very easy to do and to set up.

Green Kid Crafts: Finger Print Kit

The finger print kit was pretty neat. There were a few activities involved in this one. First, you inked your fingers on a deflated balloon, and then blew it up so you could see the rings and lines of it better, like a giant magnifying glass. We then did regular finger printing into our Top Secret book with the ink (but it was pretty wet and kinda meshed the ridges together).

Next, we pushed our fingers onto a flat clean surface (like a plastic lid) and then put a little dusting powder onto to it in order to reveal our prints! Then we put clear stickers on top of it to stick inside our Top Secret book. It was not easy to do the dusting.

Green Kid Crafts: Secret Message Kit

The last kit was the secret message kit. My kids are totally into secret messages and notes, so they loved this! This also came with a few different activities. It came with a special UV pen that had a light on one side and special clear ink pen on the other side. We took turns drawing and writing notes to each other. They also included a white crayon and red pencil so you could draw with the white crayon and then reveal it with the pencil. That’s tricky to do. So instead we used the white crayon and then used some of our own water color paints to paint over it and magically reveal the drawing underneath. Thank goodness I majored in art and knew that little trick!

What I loved most about the boxes are that all the supplies are there, in the right amount. Plus, there has always been enough for both of my twins to use it and/or share (without having to buy a sibling subscription which is $10 more a month). I am not someone who generally enjoys crafting, but it’s so great for kids to be hands on and creating, so this makes it so I don’t have to have any of my own supplies on hand (because I have only the very basic crafting supplies – glue, paper, scissors, marking utensils). And the crafts are actually educational, not just “educational” because kids are crafting or because what they make looks like something they can learn about. The process was educational.

In addition to the activities, there are also some stickers and a sheet to keep track of your boxes via the stickers, and an option to continue the learning online.

If you are ready to try out Green Kid Crafts for yourself, then use discount promo code FAGAN50 and to get 50% off the first month of a new subscription!

Green Kid Crafts Nature Subscription Box #2

I also received another Green Kid Crafts box, the Nature Box! It included a paper making kit, a paper mache globe kit, nature amulet kit, and a sun print kit. I overall was also very pleased!

Green Kid Crafts – Paper Making Kit

In college I made paper, twice, I think. We actually had a huge tub of our paper goodness and a giant mesh screen the our paper dried on, and we sloshed it evenly over the screen, and it was a whole process. I never really understood why you’d take paper to make more paper, but I guess it’s better than throwing it out. The paper making kit included in this discovery kit was not as sophisticated as what I was doing in college. Instead it involved soaking some paper in water in a little jar until it’s good and mushy. You then spread that mush onto a piece of felt (provided) that helps soak up the excess water, but it will still need to sit outside in the sun to dry all the way.

Green Kid Crafts – Paper Mache Globe

I have only done a paper mache project a handful of times in my life, so it was fun to get my hands right in the gluey-slop with them! We blew up a balloon, drew an all-too-detailed map of the earth (darn art major in me getting carried away – keep it very simple guys!), and ripped up green and blue tissue paper to dip into the glue. We did a pretty good job considering it was my daughter’s first time, and my like fifth time. We let it dry for a good day, and then I greatly enjoyed popping the balloon that was inside it.

Green Kid Crafts – Nature Amulet Kit

With the provided air-hardening sculpting clay, we pressed in the provided leaf and then another leaf from our backyard. we then gently painted with the earth paint (which was hard to mix and thick and gobbed up on the Q-tip) over the pressed in leaf. We let it dry a little then removed the leaf, and then let it completely dry overnight. We punched a hole in it and and then put the ribbon in it to make the amulet.

Green Kid Crafts – Sun Print Kit

Love this one! I did this in high school (and maybe college too?) and I thought it was cool then, and it’s cool still. My kids grabbed some small objects and we went outside to make our prints. We set the objects on the paper for about 3-5 minutes, and the sun started to bleach them lighter and lighter. We then flipped them over and ran inside to put them in a bowl of water where they started to get darker and darker blue again. After 5 minutes or more in the water, we took them out and let them dry for a few hours on the counter. The prints are really cool. I especially like the key chain ring and the clear ruler we used on one of them.

The only downside to these prints is that the included “frame” for them is on the box. You are supposed to cut out the little frame pre-designed onto the box. That would be fine except they put the entire shipping label directly over the frame, thus rendering it completely useless. All well. We could still cut out a frame from the box.

Green Kid Crafts – How much does it cost?

The Green Kid Crafts subscription boxes are $19.95/month when you get billed monthly. If you want a 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month subscription, you’ll pay upfront in order to save a little more, getting it as low as $17.95/month with a yearly subscription. However, there are shipping costs – $3.00 or $4 per box – and maybe taxes as well.

However, because I highly recommend Green Kid Crafts, they’ve given my readers an exclusive discount code! Use code FAGAN50 to get 50% off your first month of a new subscription!

If you really don’t want to mess with a subscription, they do allow you to buy an individual kit in their shop for $24.95.

To view their subscription options and Discovery Boxes and Kits, go here to start saving!