Want your wee ones to be busy? More creative? Well educated? These ethical subscription boxes for kids can help!
By Lora O’Brien
In the words of Maria Montessori, play is the work of the child. And though we may see it as fun, sometimes a little silly, playing is truly how children learn and grow. Playing improves their cognitive, physical, social and emotional wellbeing, and also teaches them the skills they need to develop friendships and relationships. Pretty interesting, right?
And what better way to encourage their play than with child curated subscription boxes?
So with play in mind, I decided to find the best ethical subscription boxes for your home. Whether you’re looking for toys to diminish clutter, exciting books to read together or crafting boxes to inspire the artist in your home, these ethical subscription boxes for kids below will truly help inspire their imagination.
But first, let’s see how you can get your kids more enthusiastic about play in general.
How to encourage your kids to play more
1. Declutter
First step, declutter! Go through the toys you do own mindfully and remove any that don’t align with your family (I got rid of all battery operated toys with flashing lights) and donate them. Less really is more!
2. Rotate toys
A toy rotation is a great way to increase your child’s quality of play. A toy rotation is a unit where you put out toys each week. Children can play with what’s out, and you regularly swap out the toys to rotate them with other toys you own. This helps children to not feel overwhelmed by a toy room full of toys and to instead help them to focus on a small amount at a time.
3. Offer open-ended toys
We often think kids need popular toys to thrive when in reality, simple toys provide creativity. Open-ended toys are playthings such as blocks, dolls and balls. They can be anything the child imagines them to be!
4. Provide arts and crafts
Play doesn’t have to look like sitting and building bricks or cuddling a doll. Crafting is a great way to expand the imagination of children and to boost creativity! Pop some paints and paper on the table, step back and let your kids have fun.
5. Connect with nature
Children love nature, but many are disconnected from it. Let your kids play outside no matter the weather, and they will always find something to do. Take walks and collect forest treasure, jump in puddles and point out wildlife.
6. Decrease screen time
I’m not here to preach about screen time. But I would suggest decreasing it if your children won’t play. My own journey with screen time is that we rarely have it these days and my daughter’s quality of play has greatly improved because of this, which wasn’t always the case. She will play pretty much all day long, and witnessing her imagination is a beautiful thing! If you opt for screen time, make sure you’re choosing low-stimulating shows over bright, colourful shows such as Cocomelon, you will see a huge difference.
7. Read stories
I have read to my daughter from a young age, and I attribute this to her excellent speech and imagination. We read books together a lot during the day and at bedtime, and it’s fun for us both. Hearing a variety of stories has allowed her to collect a wide vocabulary, not to mention it has expanded her imagination greatly.
And of course, having something novel show up each month helps, too! Here below are some great ethical gift boxes for kids. These will not only help stimulate their minds, but they also make a fantastic gift. And don’t forget: if your kids outgrow these, you can always donate them for someone else to enjoy.
10 Great Ethical Gift Boxes For Children
1. Whirli Kids
Whether you’re limited on space or you can’t afford to buy bigger toys, Whirli is a really great way for your child to access a versatile range of toys without having to buy them outright. Whirli is a pay monthly service where you use tokens to rent toys, with over 1,000 to choose from!
How it works: Choose your subscription plan. The lower plan is great to see whether you like using the platform, but the higher end is great if you want to rent bigger toys like climbing frames. Once you’ve selected your subscription, you’ll get tokens to spend online. Each Whirli token equals £1 retail price, so a toy worth £20 will cost 20 tokens.
Select your toys using the tokens you have available. Once you get them, you’re free to play with them as much as you want, for up to a year. You only send the toys back when you’re finished, and you can swap the toy for something else, as, you get back your Whirli tokens to re-spend.
Any toy you keep for over 12 months if yours to keep forever!
What’s included: Whirli has all kinds of popular toys, from wooden climbing frames and wobbel boards to the popular Tonie audio player. There are also books, games and costumes. You name it, you can find it.
Price: £12.16 – £35.00 per month
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: Those a budget! You have access to a variety of popular toys which you can rotate to keep things exciting.
Delivery: UK
2. Lovevery
Lovevery toy kits are designed to encourage open-ended play, capturing your child’s interest with their gorgeous toys.
How it works: Firstly, you start by choosing your Toy Kit. You can shop by age to make it easier. All Play Kits are stage-based, and have been developed to support your child’s developing brain. During the first year, children learn much quicker, so the packages ship every 2 months. Whereas they ship out every 3 months after this period.
What’s included: Each box has age-appropriate toys. They’re not designed to overwhelm your child, but to instead help them on their way to learning. As your child grows, the box grows with them, too. There is a versatile range of toys from books, spinning toys to dolls and puzzles.
Price: $80 – $120
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: Stage-based play designed to help your child to learn through play.
Delivery: United States and Canada. Lovevery.co.uk ships to the UK, or Lovevery.eu for Europe. Lovevery.com.au ships to Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
3. Lalo
Lalo’s Play Box is designed to encourage the curiosity of your little one. The boxes will help support their sensory exploration, and to build fine motor skills. All items are durable, and include recycled materials that are non-toxic and BPA free. They also offer a recycling program for when your child outgrows their toys.
How it works: The Play Box is age related, so you input your child’s birth date to find the box suited to their age and developmental needs. In the first year, boxes are shipped bi-monthly, and in year 2 they’re shipped quarterly. There are 1o boxes in total.
What’s included: A variety of toys, including wooden toys, play silks and books!
Price: $90 – $135. If you prepay 3 boxes at a time, you save money. You can also buy boxes without committing to a subscription, which is great for trying it out.
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: Encouraging the imagination of little ones through play.
Delivery: USA
4. Literati
It’s not just play that is crucial for children but reading, too! Reading to children allows you to connect with them while also helping to expand their imaginations.
How it works: Literati offers book clubs for newborns up to teens, and is a great way to help children fall in love with reading. The Literati subscription sends your child five books each month. The books sent are curated to your child’s likes, so there is a high chance they will love the books. You get to read them and if you love them, you can purchase the books they liked. They’re individually priced (the prices match or are less than Amazon pricing) and if you keep all 5 you get a bigger discount. Any books they didn’t enjoy can be sent back free of charge.
What’s included: 5 books per box.
Price: $9.95 per month
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: Helping to build a home library with a variety of books
Delivery: USA
5. Bookroo
How it works: Bookroo is a monthly subscription box for kids, with four options for kids aged 0 to 12. You select your subscription, and then your kids will receive a box each month. There are 4 subscriptions to choose from.
Board Book Club is for kids aged 0-3 and includes 3 board books per month.
Picture Book Club suits ages 3-6 and includes 2 hardcover picture books per month.
Junior Chapter Book Club suits ages 7-10 and includes two chapter book per month.
Middle Grade Book Club is for ages 9-12, and includes 2 hardcover chapter books per month.
What’s included: Each month there will be 2-3 books depending on your subscription. Bookroo finds unique books so you’ll rarely ever get sent a book you’ve read before. They also have Bookroo Collection Editions, which are exclusive, limited edition books only available to subscribers.
Price: $19.95 – $21.95 per month. If you have more than one child and need multiple subscriptions Bookroo gives you 15% off. You can also schedule the boxes to come every other month if monthly is too much.
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: This would make a great gift for any child that loves reading!
Delivery: USA
6. Storytime Magazine
Are you even a parent if your child doesn’t want one of those supermarket magazines? You know, the ones that come with lots of plastic toys that are played with for 5 seconds before being discarded and forgotten. Well, finally there is a magazine delivery I can get down with! I’ve had this delivered for my daughter for 2 years now, and we love it!
How it works: Choose your subscription and await your first delivery! It’s as easy as that. Each month your child will receive a Storytime magazine in the post.
What’s included: Each month a new Storytime magazine is delivered, full of fun, engaging and inspiring stories including fairy tales, myths, fables and stories from different cultures. There are also puzzles, games and colouring. It’s printed on quality paper so kids can read each magazine again and again.
Price: £4.99 – £41.99. If you want to try Storytime without subscribing, you can just pay £4.99 per month. But if you buy an annual subscription, you get up to a 36% discount.
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: Kids who love stories. My daughter loves getting her own Storytime post each month! It’s a great gift, too.
Delivery: Worldwide
7. Tide Pool Play
Hate the clutter of lots of toys? I feel you! And in the spirit of sustainability, Tide Pool Play is a subscription service helping parents to rent toys instead of buying them.
How it works: The concept behind the brand is pretty simple. Parents sign up, choose 5-10 toys and wait for them to arrive. Your children then get to play with them until they’re bored of them. And instead of them cluttering your home, you get to trade them in for a fresh set of toys. Simply pop the old toys in the box they arrived in, attach the prepaid mailing label and schedule for them to be picked up. It’s super easy and a great way for your children to play without constantly buying new stuff.
What’s included: Depending on the package, 5-10 toys. The toys include everything from wooden toys to Duplo building bricks, audio players and puzzles.
Price: $40 per month for 5 toys, which is a great way to sample the service. The second subscription costs $65 per month for 8-10 toys and this includes a Yoto audio player and 4 content cards, which is perfect if you have multiple children to share the toys across.
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: Those with a small home. Your children get to play without adding clutter!
Delivery: USA
8. Nido
One thing I wish I’d understood sooner in motherhood was that my baby didn’t need toys. We lavish soft toys and gifts on our new bundle, but really, they’re content to play with any old item.
How it works: Nido offers beautiful, expertly curated and age-appropriate toys for the minimal parent via their subscription boxes. Nido partners with an AMI-certified Montessori primary teacher who has years of experience guiding children in the classroom. There are 6 gender neutral collections to choose from, each of which is purposeful, calm and pure while meeting developmental milestones for your little one.
What’s included: Each Nido box covers two months of age and has a mix of 5-7 toys and practical items, such as a hairbrush or utensils. The items come from artists and artisans worldwide, who make them with materials that are safe for babies to put in their mouths. Each box comes swaddled with a muslin swaddle, too.
Price: £122
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: Babies up to 12 months. This would be a gorgeous gift for a new mom!
Delivery: UK/Worldwide
9. Mud + Bloom
When our parents talk of their childhood, more often than not, their ‘play’ wasn’t with physical toys, but time spent outdoors. Nature is the original playground, and though many of us have lost sight of connecting our children back to nature, many of us are trying to help children to spend more time outdoors. With their imagination, children can turn anything into a toy!
How it works: The sole idea behind Mud + Bloom is to encourage children to get outside again. This gardening and nature subscription box comes in a small, letterbox-friendly box and includes four activities per box which are a mix of nature-inspired crafts and seasonal planting. Children will find what they need on family walks and adventures, while also learning about the seasons and nature.
What’s included: Each box has everything your little one needs for at least 5 seasonal gardening and nature crafting activities. Alongside this are nature news, spotting activities and fun games to teach children about animals, insects, birds and the seasons, connecting them to nature.
You don’t need a big garden to enjoy this subscription either. Compost pellets are included in every box, along with certified organic seeds or bulbs to encourage children to grow their seasonal vegetables, plants or flowers in a plant pot on your windowsill.
Price: £18.95 per month or £22.95 for an additional sibling box. If you subscribe for either a 6 or 12 month subscription you get a small discount plus a free digging spade and fork worth over £44!
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: Getting kids in deeper touch with nature.
Delivery: UK
10. KiwiCo
Play isn’t just vital for the health and wellbeing of children, it play is also the way they learn. When given the right environment to learn, children’s natural curiosity helps them solve problems and to think outside the box. Kiwico’s STEM Subscription Box Kits are the perfect asset for helping kids and adults learn in a super fun way.
How it works: KiwiCo is a fun crate subscription box that has been designed to stimulate our kid’s curiosity to learn. You choose which crate best suits your family from these options:
Panda Crate is for kids aged 0 to 24 months
Kaola Crate is for ages 2 to 4 years
Kiwi Crate is for ages 5 to 8 years
Atlas Crate is for ages 6 – 11 years
The Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate is for ages 9 to 16 years, and KiwiCo has even expanded their collection to feature a crate suitable for adults, too, with their Maker Crate and Eureka Crate.
What’s included: Your monthly crate includes all materials for a project relating to a theme, such as science of colour, lemonade stand or treasure hunt, for example.
Price: There is a wide variety of fun crates, each differing in price. Most start at $23.95 per month, with the Maker Crate and Eureka Crate costing $32.95 per month. The Panda Crate costs $49.90 per crate and comes every two months. Discounts are given for signing up to the newsletter, and also by signing up for a 3, 6 or 12 month subscription.
One of the best ethical subscription boxes for kids for: Kids who are being home schooled.
Delivery: Worldwide
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