If you’re thinking about getting a subscription box for your autistic child, I would encourage you to look into Kiwi Crate. We were given a box to try and I truly believe that kiwi crate is a good fit for autistic children.
To round out the afterschooling curriculum, I wanted to do arts and crafts. Ideally, I would like to be able to do these myself with Sweet B, but it’s also nice to have an option that’s already assembled or at least has all of the necessary parts and pieces. We will do some crafts on our own, as soon as I figure out what themes we’re doing for the upcoming months. We did try another box service, but I also wanted to try out Kiwi Crate with her. I was initially unsure if I should try Koala Crate, which is designed for 3 to 4 year olds or if I should try the regular Kiwi Crate. After looking at the differences between the two boxes, I decided that Kiwi Crate would fit our needs best.
The Benefits of Kiwi Crate for Autistic Children
The first box that we received was themed with Frozen Fun, appropriate for this time of the year even if there’s not a lot of snow on the ground. We were still able to have some winter fun this week, thanks to Kiwi Crate.
The two crafts that were included with this month’s box were: Snowman Toss and Frozen Luminaries
My favorite part about these booklets? The guide on the front let’s you know how much parental involvement is needed, how messy the project is, and what type of skills you’re working on. While this might not matter too much to the kiddos, this was definitely a favorite feature of mine. I also liked how everything unfolded easily and revealed the step by step instructions inside. Sweet B is a visual person and though she did require hand over hand assistance at times, I think that with time she could do some of these activities independently.
That being said, the first craft that we tried was the snowman toss.
Everything that you need is included in the Kiwi Crate, so the most time consuming process was actually putting the boxes together- and even that didn’t take very long to do. After the boxes were put together, it was a matter of decorating the boxes.
For the most part, Sweet B did this herself. She picked out the stickers and put them on and I then had her draw a mouth on each box. Once our snowman was complete, it was time to do the toss part of the activity. That didn’t go over so well… and if you want to see what I mean, you can check out our YouTube Channel.
After giving her a break from that, and letting her have some screen time with the tablet, we moved on to the next craft.
This one required more of my involvement, but I think that she still did pretty well with it. Instead of using a paper bag, I used our Kiwi Crate box to provide her with a flatter and elevated surface. I think that probably helped her out in terms of completing the craft.
Putting on the tissue paper was the most time consuming part of this but it also really made her use her fine motor skills.
We also ended up using a piece of tape to put the two sides together instead of using the provided clear stickers. One thing that we’ll do differently when we make the other one, is to let the glaze dry after putting all of the tissue paper on there. It wasn’t too sticky but sticky enough when we were putting the stickers on the surface.
Other elements that were included, since it was our first box, was a pair of child safety scissors, and a map of sorts to track each crate that we receive. We also received an activity book with a short story, other suggested activities, and a note to parents.
All in all, I was really pleased with the contents of the crate and how well they fit Sweet B’s ability level. We used our introductory box on her winter break, but future boxes will be used as a part of the afterschooling curriculum. This crate was easy to adapt to her ability level and she didn’t require quite as much adult assistance for the crafts. I would also recommend this for the age appropriate level. I think that this also something we’ll look into when Squeaker starts Tot School, though for her, we’ll start with the Koala Crate.
Kori
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That is awesome my son with the most sever autism is not in to crafts at all. Great work I love the snowman.