Toucan Box Review

You may have seen adverts for Toucan Box popping up on Social Media. I have noticed them several times and thought about them, then thought that we could do that ourselves. Just before Christmas thought there was an offer that we couldn't resist - A chance to try your first Toucan Box for FREE.

The box arrived about a week before Christmas - some pop sticks, googly eyes, glitter glue (BB's favourite) string, jewels, glue, some thin foam, and of course the instructions.

Instruction booklet

Instruction booklet

The box had BB's name on, which he now recognises, so the first part of his joy came from the fact that there was a parcel for him. The second part was that it rattled and jiggled and sounded sooo cool. As soon as we opened it he wanted to start creating. We made several of the Christmas decorations, most are not packed away for next year, but here's one that he gave to Nana that we brought home from her room the other day.

A Christmas decoration by BB

Simple, but effective. BB was able to do most of this himself too, once he had been shown what to do. I enjoyed making them too - it was nice to spend the time together working on something like this.

The super dart rocket

Our second box arrived just after Christmas. This was to create fireworks or rockets. Again we sat down to the activity as soon as the box arrived.  BB was particularly into rockets at this time too as we had just watch Wallace and Gromit on Prime Instant Video- the one where they build a rocket and go to the moon looking for cheese.

Then a couple of days later when my parents came to visit, BB carefully got the  things out, setting a place for each of them at the table with all of the things they needed to make the rockets.

The first attempt rocket

My Dad immediately set about improving the design, narrowing the rocket and removing the tails which created resistance and slowing it down. It flew! So all the family had some fun out of this set.

Our third set arrived yesterday - even though we were quite late home, we had to do it before we went to bed. We made some jellyfish.

Once again everything that we needed was in the packet. We made one each so BB was easily able to copy what I was doing. He needed some help of course, especially with the threading of the ribbon and tying of knots.

Our jellyfish

As well as the craft materials you also get some stickers which you can add to a chart to get free gifts and prizes.

The prize chart, for collecting your tokens

There was also a booklet that they call the Toucan Tracker, which links all the activities to the curriculum. I counted them - 89 outcomes!!! 

The curriculum!

Then there is a sheet for parents that tells you how the activity fits into the National Curriculum "What we are learning" and the flip side "Explore more" gives you more ideas for activities. Though we haven't done any of these yet, I have created a folder to keep them in for future ideas, so I do value them. 

Parent support sheets

To be completely honest I found the curriculum links to be the least valuable part of the project. I also doubt if they are correct - for example in the fireworks pack they are talking about expansion of air, the speed of sound, shock waves and sonic booms - now I was a Science Teacher for 13 years and that sort of level of understanding was beyond most of my year 10 students, so I really don't think its appropriate for a preschooler.  Nor do I think anyone will achieve a sonic boom with their home made paper rocket! There is another link to a Science outcome which begins with "The North Pole is home to Santa and his reindeer..." now call me a party pooper, but that's not actually science!

BB's snake

The other thing of course is that you could do all this yourself. The thing is though that you don't do you! Well I don't anyway, not right now at least. And if you did, it could cost more as you would have to buy a whole pack of straws, a whole reel of ribbon etc. instead of just the bits you need. That said, every project so far has been very generous with resources - we have had bits left over from every project so far which we are putting away in our craft stores. Whilst I have been writing this, BB has picked out some of the leftover pieces from the box and created this snake, all by his self.

The boxes cost £4.93 and are delivered fortnightly, so whilst they are not expensive, that does add up. However, we are enjoying the joy of boxes arriving, getting into the craft ideas, working together to create something and we do have stuff left over for other projects. You can also get a box half price if you introduce a friend, and can collect the prize tokens faster if you share your projects on Instagram Twitter of Facebook. So although I could do it myself for less, the reality is that I am not doing that right now. Currently, we are thoroughly enjoying the whole Toucan Box experience and would definitely recommend them to our friends and so have no intentions of giving them up as yet.

So if you would like to try a free box click on the image below - please note this is an affiliate link and I will earn a small commission for introducing you (but it wont cost you anything)

 If you do end up trying one, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.