HomeChild's Play12 Best Subscription Boxes for Kids (2023): All Ages, STEM, Books, and Snacks

12 Best Subscription Boxes for Kids (2023): All Ages, STEM, Books, and Snacks

May 2, 2023

12 Best Subscription Boxes for Kids (2023): All Ages, STEM, Books, and Snacks

  • Photograph: KiwiCo

    The Best Box

    KiwiCo Kiwi Crate

    For years, my parents have sent a monthly Kiwi Crate to my children. My 5-year-old son now receives some of the same themed crates my 8-year-old received at his age. Kiwi Crate offers a staggering array of gift boxes for all ages, from toddlers under 2 to teenagers. You can also choose boxes aimed at specific interests, such as music, mazes, holiday crafts, and robots.

    The sheer amount of stuff in most gift subscription boxes can be overwhelming, especially for smaller children. That's why I particularly like Kiwi's careful curation, with projects that are age-appropriate, but won't break my kids' hearts if they lose or destroy them, like sewing together a baseball mitt made out of felt. Each box also includes clear instructions that require little parental supervision—my kids can follow the drawings, even if they have trouble parsing the written instructions. My shark-obsessed son loved a recent marine biologist box with a clay-moldable coral reef and recently sewed himself his own baseball glove, complete with Velcro ball.

    $24 at KiwiCo

  • Photograph: Lovevery

    Best for Really Young Kids

    Lovevery Play Kit

    We received a (spendy!) Lovevery kit when my son was 2 years old. Now he’s 5, and I still find the company’s sturdy, Montessori-inspired toys in use around our house. Lovevery (pronounced “love-every”) promotes what it calls stage-based learning. At each stage of development, a baby needs different (beautiful, colorful, durable) toys to help them develop different parts of their brain.

    It’s pretty cute to term every stage with a different focus, like The Inspector or The Explorer, although I have to admit that I’m not so sure my son enjoyed experimenting with gravity that much more at 10 months than at a year old (he still dropped things on the floor is what I’m saying). My much older daughter also enjoyed arranging giant, gorgeous felt flowers just as much as my son did. If you’re a special person in a little one’s life and want to send them toys that are attractive and sturdy enough to pass down to others, this is the best toy subscription to get. 

    $80 at Lovevery (Every Two Months)

  • Photograph: Literati

    Best Book Club 

    Literati Book Club

    We paid for a Literati subscription until its curation system worked against them. Literati offers book clubs that take newborn children all the way up to their teens, and it even features an adult book club. Literati will send your child five books each month. Return any books that you don't like and pay Amazon's list price for the rest. Every single book was a hit, and each kid had to have every book in every box. For the sake of my wallet and our already-groaning bookshelves, I had to stop the subscription.  

    You can gift a subscription or a one-time, age-appropriate theme box that comes with a card and personalized stickers and artwork. It's a great way to expose your children (and yourself!) to wonderful new works of art or literature without having to drag them to a bookstore. 

    $10 at Literati

  • Photograph: Universal Yums

    Best Snack Box

    Universal Yums Snack Box

    Every month, my kids tear into the Universal Yums snack box like a very small pack of very tiny wolves. My colleague Louryn Strampe recommends it in her Best Snack Boxes guide. You can choose a small, medium, or large box, and it includes an informative booklet, games, and trivia.

    Food is a great way to learn about geography and different cultures. Every month, my kids and I open the box, look at a globe, and do a lot of Googling. We have liked several foreign candies enough to start ordering them separately on Amazon. Even when the snacks aren't a hit—I got the salted truffle French fries all to myself—my kids always try them and ask a lot of questions about why a country is called the Kingdom of Butterflies and when we can visit.

    $15 at Universal Yums

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