Surprise Ride Review

 We recently received a free box from Surprise Ride for the month of August.  These are prepackaged boxes geared for 6-11 year olds.  Each month has a new, surprise theme.  The boxes are beautifully packaged in tissue paper, and everything is neatly organized.  Our surprise theme was treasures.

The box came with so many goodies.  First there is the treasure fact sheet, which was placed on top of the tissue paper.  Underneath was a sticker book, chapter book, treasure chest with painting supplies, fools gold, treasure map and supplies, popcorn snack, bracelet, and direction cards.  You can tell the creators put a lot of thought into what went into the box.  My 7 year old wanted to do everything right away.

She started off with the treasure chest, and got right to work painting it.  They included absolutely EVERYTHING you need for this project.  There was an instruction sheet, treasure chest, smock, gems, glue, paint, paint pan, and a paintbrush.  I loved that I didn't need to help with anything.  She had all the materials that she needed.  It was great to have her working independently on a fun task, while I cooked dinner without being disturbed.

For the second activity there was a paper to make 2 different maps on, colored pencils, tree pencil, eraser, bag and fools gold.  The direction sheet said to put the fools gold in the burlap bag, hide it, and then use the materials to draw a map to its location.  Addie had a lot of fun creating her map, and her little sister got to keep the fools gold when she found it.

The girls have been having fun making scenes with the stickers, the popcorn was devoured within minutes, and the book has been making an excellent read aloud at bed time. Surprise Ride is definitely one of  the nicest monthly subscription box I've come across, but it's also more pricey than most.  You can tell there is a lot of thought and care put into the boxes.  I wish they had an add on for siblings, where you can get just the extra art material and snack instead of buying a whole new box.  My guess is that will be something they work on developing in the future.  I think this is a great product for busy parents who are looking to give their kids some independent activities that don't revolve around a screen.  Surprise Ride also has boxed themes for different countries, which would be great to take along on a vacation for a little bit of down time.   If you're interested in trying Surprise Ride, just click here.