We recently bought the Early Years Fun Subscription box to have a look at. I was really interested in this box because whilst it is aimed at 2-5 year olds it also says on the website that the box is suitable for children with special needs working at this age.
The Early Years Fun box is available as a monthly subscription or as a one off box.
The box itself was nice and simple, plain white with a big, fun sticker on the front. It was posted inside a postage bag to limit damage in transit.(We added the leaves for our unboxing video!)
Every month’s box has a different theme. The box we were bought was Autumn themed and every activity went with the theme. When we opened the box, the activities were packed inside green tissue paper and sealed with another sticker.
Inside our box we found ten labelled packs, ten instruction cards, an information sheet and a disclaimer telling us the activities were designed to be supervised. The information sheet explained how each activity fitted into the Early Years Foundation Stage (the early years curriculum in the UK). The creator of the box is an OFSTED rated outstanding childminder and she has over 20 years of experience creating fun and educational activities for young children!
We soon set to work exploring our activities. Now my son is 12 and this box is aimed at 2-5 year olds but I’m happy to say he (and I) enjoyed the vast majority of the activities!
The first activity we tried was the “Design it” pack. This was a painting activity and came with paper, a pot of paint and a leaf shaped sponge. The instructions told us to tip the paint out onto a plate so we could use the sponge to make leaf prints.
The next activity we tried was the “Cook it” pack. For this we needed to provide our own apple and in the pack was a paper plate, a lolly pop stick, 2 bars of Cadbury chocolate and a packet of star shaped sprinkles. The activity involved pushing the lolly stick into the apple, melting the chocolate and covering the apple in it before adding sprinkles and leaving to dry. You can’t really go wrong with a chocolate apple!
Next we tried the “Make it” pack. We made a leaf shaped name plate to go on a bedroom door. Again, absolutely everything we needed was in the box.
We spent a fair bit of time on my sons favourite activity, the “Sense it” pack. This one involved mixing cornflour and aqueous cream to make a soft dough which he liked doing and playing with a lot. We then made the dough into a hedgehog by pushing small sticks into it. This was a good activity for my son because it was so sensory and also to help him with his minor motor skills.
Then came the “Move it” pack, where we had to fill a balloon with leaf shaped confetti and bat it to each other. The balloons were see through and the leaves shook around when we threw it so this was fun.
The “Sing it” pack, my son wasn’t too fussed about as it was an Autumn themed action song. It would be great for young children though. Similarly the “Play it” pack, which included a colour sorting game would be much better for younger children.
The “Imagine it” pack was good. It included a small cuddly toy and involved using the actual subscription box to make it a home.
The last two packs were “Do it” and “Explore it”. “Do it” involved sewing thread round a card leaf shape and decorating it which is again good for practicing minor motor skills. The “Explore it” pack we really enjoyed! It came in a bigger bag than the other packs which contained a pair of gloves, a pen and a scavenger hunt sheet. We went on a great walk looking for things from the list to put in our bag and tick off.
I really liked how varied the Early Years Fun Subscription box was. It meant if we were not as keen on something then there were other completely different things to try. However I think most 2-5 year olds would love all of the activities! There were ten activities which were well thought out and planned for young children and even though the activities were educational, they were loads of fun!
The possible packs you might get in a box are:
Cook it – child friendly baking or cooking activities.
Explore it – Activities that involve getting outside or learning about the outside world.
Sing it – Song or action based activities.
Sense it – Sensory and messy play activities.
Make it – Craft activities.
Do it – minor motor skill activities
Move it – gross motor skill activities.
Design it – Art activities.
Play it – games to play together.
Imagine it – activities to encourage imaginative play.
Read it – activities that involve reading together.
Experiment it – Science based activities.
Count it – Math based activities.
Early Years Fun boxes are available from https://earlyyearsfun.co.uk They are priced at £20 a month on a subscription and delivered to your door. You can also buy a one off box for £25 or save a lot by buying upfront subscriptions. We have been given a voucher code which will get £5 off your order which is AKOT5.
Early Years Fun Subscription boxes for autistic children?
The box is great if your child is working at the age of 2-5. It can also be good for older children, my son enjoyed it even though he is 12!
The activities are varied so help development in many areas.
The sensory activities were brilliant!
The box is good to just grab an activity when you need it as it contains everything you need.
The activities don’t require huge amounts of concentration and each one will keep you occupied for around 15 minutes to half an hour.
This box is something you do with your child so it is adaptable to individual needs and help can be provided as needed.
We had a lot of fun with our box!
You can watch our unboxing video here:
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