Reviewed by
Roxie
ToucanBox is a flexible subscription service for children aged 3-8 designed to keep their little hands busy and their curious minds racing through exciting art activities. Each letterbox-friendly box (personalised with your child’s name) contains two activity packs full of inspiration and materials, a colourful magazine with stickers and a very small surprise gift.
Mini Greenhouse
Contents: sticker sheet, soil pellets, black plastic membrane, seeds, wooden greenhouse pieces, wooden seed markers, greenhouse journal and PVA glue.
Our first activity pack contained all the materials we’d need to create our own ‘Mini Greenhouse’. This was a fantastic activity and, I’d even go as far to say, it’s our favourite out of all the ones we’ve received from toucanBox. Penny has been asking to do planting for months but I’m far from green-fingered so had been putting it off in the hope she’d do it at nursery. I put together the frame of the greenhouse and Penny had lots of fun decorating it with the stickers provided, watching the soil grow in the water, using her hands to lay it down and ‘dig’ little holes and, of course, plating her seeds. The pack contained basil, parsley and basil seeds plus a ‘Greenhouse Journal’ to encourage her to observe the seeds grow and look after them. The frame is surprisingly sturdy and reusable.
Honey Bee & Bamboo Beehive
Contents: Polystyrene bee body, sticky back eyes, wax sticks, split pins, bamboo sticks, elastic bands and pipe cleaner.
This activity involved wrapping sticks of wax around a polystyrene shape to create a bee. It was a very fiddly task and one Penny got very frustrated with. I took the lead with this one while we discussed the importance of bees, where they live and how we can encourage them to visit our garden by making a house for them. We hung our creation outside and Penny check on it every day.
By Mary 
