Together Box Review

I’ve been seeing all of these craft box subscriptions pop up all over the place.  I’ve been curious, but I’ve never quite actually been curious enough to buy one myself.  After all I’ve got a very full and over-flowing craft closet.  I finally broke down when Together Box approached me to look at their magnet box.

{Disclosure: I received a free sample from Together Box, opinions are all my own, etc, etc…..}

I got our together box and was quite pleased with the contents of the box and the overall quality of the materials.  I had to kind of scrunch the materials on top of each other to get a decent picture, but here’s what we got: paint, glue, paper plates, magnetic wand, popsicle sticks, scrapbook paper, magnetic pattern blocks (worth it for these alone), suggested activities,  little bag full of: q-tips, paper clips, bolts, and SUPER strong magnets

Seriously the magnets included with this are pretty high quality, they will break if you drop them on tile or hit them at the wrong angle, but they are amazingly strong.  SO KEEP THEM AWAY FROM YOUR ELECTRONICS!

We laid out all of the suggested activities and each of the kids got to choose one.  I’m also noticing Batman is looking incredibly tired in that top picture, way over the top tired.  Out of the step by step activities they picked: sheep herding, boat building, and painting

First we started building our boats with popsicle sticks.  There’s more than enough for 1-2 kids to build the boat of their dreams.  My kids were running out of popsicle sticks, but they also were trying to build the Titanic, so I think that’s more a reflection on the scale they tried to build.  We really enjoyed the process of building the boats, and had a lot of fun discussing it.  Batman especially enjoyed the yellow popsicle sticks, because that’s his favorite color (note to self pick up colored popsicle sticks).

The instructions say to glue the magnets on, but we tried taping them on, and that worked ok and left the magnets able to be used for more projects.

By far the most popular activity in the box for my kids was sheep-herding with magnets.  I didn’t believe their claim at first the magnet wands would be able to drag the magnets around through a table, but I tried it on our thick wood dining room table and it did.  It also was a bit bigger than my kids ability to maneuver, so we got out our small kiddo table and had a much better time there.  I love the freedom we had to modify the activities, I know my kids wouldn’t have reacted well to the suggested way of playing the game, and our modification of being able to see made it fun for all.

Side note: One of my favorite aspects of the Together Box is the ability to take their activity and just run with it.  You don’t have to stick to the set activity to have fun.

 

This was probably the least favorite activity of my kids, but Princess picked it out and we tried it.  To be fair, my kids have never liked painting in unconventional ways.  They like having finer control over where the paint goes than you get with a magnet (or flowers, or any number of other ways I’ve tried).  But again, Princess took some of the other items in the box and had a blast painting with them that way.

I’d say this activity is the most limited on supplies.  There was enough paint for each of my kids to do this exactly once, but getting extra poster paint is easy enough, and then you can repeat it to your heart’s content.

At the end of it all we just had fun playing with the magnets and seeing what they can do, which isn’t that what you want from a discovery box like this?

 

Who would I say a Together Box is for?

I’d say these are great for Moms who want to do crafts, activities, and more with their kids, but aren’t sure where to get supplies or what to do.  The box has several more ideas we didn’t even try yet, and they loved just playing around with the magnets.

 

What about the quality of a Together Box?

Part of why I’ve been leery of craft kits like this is my past experience.  I’ve gotten some that promised to have great ideas, but in the end I got 1/2 cup of cornstarch and some cheaply made plastic bowls.  The quality of the materials in this was great.  The magnetic pattern blocks were higher quality than ones I’d bought before, and the magnets are the best quality.  Do I wish there was a hair more of the craft sticks and the paint?  Yes, is that a deal breaker?  Not really, the more expensive items in the box are a high enough quality to make up for it.

Where to get Together Box

Go to their site: togetherbox.com, and there are multiple options: monthly, 3 months, or 6 months.  If you decide to get one use the code: adventures to get $10 off your order (SWEET!).