Product Review: Flintobox -- A monthly activity kit for kids from 2-8 years of age!

Wondering whether to buy a Flintobox or not? This review will help you.

Any parent will know exactly what I mean when I say that keeping a toddler busy is the most challenging task. I am a working mom of a toddler, and internet is my best friend when it comes to looking for inspiring activities for my 19-months-old. I usually turn to 'mommy groups' on social media, but honestly, nothing has been very helpful. The elaborate DIYs are a bit too much for me to manage on a weekend. I do try my hand at simple things like homemade non-toxic finger paint and DIY playdough, but I draw the line when it comes to cutting, pasting, scaling and putting things together. Yes, it looks cute, but no, not my cup of tea.

This is why I was attracted to Flintobox.

Flintobox is a monthly activity box service which has many meaningful developmental activities. It follows a theme every month and each activity in the box is carefully curated. Now you see where I am going with this? What can be better than a set of activities that aim at developing gross motor skills and cognitive skills, all put together in a box! I was interested in trying out the Flintobox as I browsed the website and Flintobox team gladly sent a box for reviewing!

Flintobox - House Explorer

I received the 'house explorer' box which contained eight activities in total. I opened the box with my toddler and the sheer burst of colors and playing possibilities were too overwhelming for her. I had planned to unbox each activity one-by-one, but true to the toddler way of exploring things, she upturned the box. I gasped, but quickly heaved a sigh of relief as there were no sharp or small objects, or anything that can injure her little fingers. Full points for that! After indulging my toddler's curiosity about the box's content, we sat down to actually doing the activities. The box contained eight activities to be spread out over a month that work on enhancing motor and cognitive skills. We have been using this for over a month now and I know that my daughter does these activities because she enjoys, and not just because it is a novelty. Here are the activities in the Flintobox:

House of shapes

A simple puzzle activity that has a stencil in shapes of different houses and foam pieces that fit in. Most toddlers know what a house looks like and my daughter connected with this activity immediately. As I helped her fit the pieces, I explained the colors of the foam pieces and shapes. The stencil also has the morning and night scene on each side, so that was also a nice way to teach her the concept of night and day, apart from it being a great exercise in enhancing gross motor skill.

Average time spent: 10 minutes

Lock and keys

My daughter's favourite activity! This is one activity I didn't have to demonstrate. I love activities that toddlers can just pick up and make out what's to be done. All I had to do was to ask her to match the keys with the lock!

Average time spent: anywhere between 10 minutes to roaming with it all day!

Broom

Hello! Which toddler doesn't like sweeping? Goes without saying that this was an instant hit, and still is. Let's just say that I have a very clean coffee table and TV unit.

Average time spent: I once found her cuddling it to sleep. Enough said.

Kitchen fun and Explore the home

An excellent activity to teach 'a place for everything, everything in place'. There's a board with the picture of a kitchen and a house, with matching tiles that the child needs to stick on the board. Excellent activity for learning recognition and matching. My only concern here is that I wish the fridge had more of fruits and less of candies, cupcakes and doughnuts.

Average time spent: 10-15 minutes

Rock the bed

A bed that you can construct yourself! Yes, please. My daughter loves fixing the bed's legs and putting the monkey to sleep. I showed her once how to place the pillow and blanket and now she even sings lullabies to the 'tiny' monkey! It's slowly becoming a nighttime ritual with her.

Average time spent: 5 minutes. Or how much ever long it takes for tiny to fall asleep.

Five little monkeys

My daughter does not say 'Flintobox'. All she says is 'want 5 little monkeys'! The 5 little monkeys nursery rhyme is definitely the toddler anthem and an activity where you can actually perform it -- genius! The colorful bandages that can be matched with monkeys' vests are way too cute. My daughter loves kissing and putting a bandage on the monkeys' 'ouchie'. It comes with a book too, which in my opinion, is icing on the cake!

Average time spent: Whenever the mood strikes

The Emo book

The final product in the box is a book featuring a character called Emo, who is shown in different parts of the house. It is a great way to learn about various parts of the house, names of different types of furniture and recognising things shown in the book.

Average time spent: 5 minutes.

My verdict

My 19-months-old daughter loves the activities, especially the 5 little monkeys, lock and keys and the broom. Flintobox is definitely worth the money as each and every activity helps in enhancing a number of skills. The pamphlets with each activity explain well as to how you can make the activity enriching. I will definitely get a few more Flintoboxes and recommend it to all parents.

Disclaimer: TheHealthSite does not endorse any brands and is not responsible for its efficacy. The review is based on the author s experience with the product.

Image courtesy: Author's own

---