My daughter loves a good project—and she can handle it all on her own, thank you very much. Just like its subscriptions for younger kids, KiwiCo’s craft boxes for tweens and teens come with everything they’ll need to put a project together (which is one of the reasons it’s a pick in our guide to the best kids craft subscription boxes). You can choose from four styles, depending on your tween’s interests and skill level: Doodle Crate (art and creativity, ages 9 through 16), Tinker Crate (STEM projects, ages 9 through 16), Eureka Crate (science and engineering, ages 14 and up), and Maker (art and design, ages 14 and up). If you don’t want to commit to a subscription, individual boxes and packs of three or five kits are also available. Not all of the boxes hit it out of the park, but KiwiCo’s crates use higher-quality materials compared with those I’ve purchased at big-box retailers, and they’re infused with thought and creativity. For instance, the Electric Pencil Sharpener (one of the Eureka Crate projects, meant for ages 14 and up, mostly because there are lots of small pieces) includes a booklet with a behind-the-scenes look at how the sharpener was designed, the science of switches and circuits, and the history of pencil sharpeners and pencils. The finished product now sits on our school-supply shelf and gets used regularly.
