Think Outside Boxes Subscription Box Review: The Weather Box

If you've been following us for the past few months you know we're big fans of getting kids outdoors. And one of our new favourite tools to make outdoor lessons fun is our Think Outside Boxes (affiliate link) subscription service - use our exclusive coupon code THINK10 to save on your order.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Before I jump into a description of our Weather Box unboxing, here's a quick overview of how the Think Outside Boxes subscription box service works.

Think Outside Boxes Subscription Service

The Weather Box: Think Outside Subscription Box Review & Coupon Code

I love subscription boxes for kids, mostly because the girls get so excited when they receive anything by mail. With the Think Outside Boxes subscription plan, we receive one outdoor-themed box each month.

To date, we've received the Initiation Box, the First Aid Box, the Weather Box, and we just picked up the Navigation Box (post coming next week). Each Think Outside box is carefully curated to encourage kids and families to spend time together outdoors.

Every new subscriber first receives the Initiation box, which includes a backpack (your children's choice of colour) and an activity book plus a few gear items to get started. Your next box depends on which season you're in. Here's the list:

Initiation Box
Spring Think Outside Boxes: Shelter, Fire, Weather
Summer Boxes: Navigation, Nutrition, Nature
Fall Boxes: Night, Water, First Aid
Winter Boxes: Wildlife, Repair, Knot

Think Outside Boxes advertise their subscription service as best suited for kids aged 7+, however, I find they were easily adaptable for my almost-six-year-old as well.

Overview of the Think Outside Boxes Subscription Weather Box

This month's box included the following:

wide brim sunhat with adjustable straps
eco-friendly microfiber neck warmer
backpack rain cover
emergency blanket
water-resistant resource cards
activity supplies
activity guide

While my nine-year-old loved the sunhat with the adjustable brim, my six-year-old preferred to use the backpack rain cover as a shower-cap style hat.

We went over each item carefully and stowed the backpack covers and emergency blankets in the girls' backpacks along with the gear from their initiation box and first aid box. Then we set to studying the resource cards (this month's topic was clouds) before adding them to our resource card rings.

Once again the activity guide was chock-full of useful information, fun facts, and suggestions for hands-on learning. We're now spending a week on cloud journaling and prediction, and sharing our weather jokes with unsuspecting older siblings!

Homeschooling Outdoors Through the Spring

As a homeschooling mom, one of my favourite things about Think Outside Boxes is how it encourages learning outdoors.

Since we live off the grid in a remote part of Canada's subarctic, spending time outside is a huge part of our daily life. And these boxes and activities encourage the problem-solving skills that are critical to our lifestyle.

Recently, we discovered monthly homeschool lesson plans right on the Think Outside Boxes website.

We're currently using the Weather Box Lesson Plan to guide our activities each week. The discussion and evaluation questions encourage research in geography and science. And the vocabulary list is a great addition to our Language Arts lessons, and can even be used as a challenging spelling list.

How to Choose a Subscription Box Service for Kids

Today's families have more choice than ever before when it comes to choosing a subscription box service. And we've tried many ourselves, including Wonder Crates, Snack Crates, and Little Passports. We've enjoyed them all. However, Think Outside Boxes have been our favourite -- by far!

The key to choosing the best subscription box service for your family is to find something that your kids will look forward to receiving each month. And the contents of the box should align with your family's values and interests.

Do you know of a family needing a little nudge to get outdoors?

If so, why not gift them one month or more of these fun and educational boxes?

Think Outside Boxes are a great way to build up wilderness survival kits for kids quickly and easily. And they'll learn how to use their gear the right way right from the start.