Thank you to Austin Lloyd for providing me with a sample box, free of charge, for review. All opinions are my own.
Box subscription services are becoming increasingly popular these days and with good reason. With companies like Austin Lloyd offering high quality educational products, their gift subscription makes the perfect gift for children from newborn all the way up to 3 years old. Plus, they are delivered right to the front door of the recipient each month. After my husband saw our Austin Lloyd box, he even marveled at how this would be perfect if his Godchild was still young. Austin Lloyd has taken the guesswork, hours in town shopping, and worry out of gift giving. They also offer regular subscriptions in 1-month, 3-month, and 6-month lengths.
We received the 19-24 Month Subscription Box for our 22 month old son. The theme of our box for this month was “Blooming Gardens.” Upon opening our box, I was pleasantly surprised at the beautiful presentation as well as the personalization.
Our box included:
Butterfly Shape Sort Puzzle – Retail Value: $23.50
Caterpillar Gear Toy – Retail Value: $9.99
Bird Whistle – Retail Value: $4.00
Garden Hut Puzzle – Retail Value: $8.99
The Little Gardener Board Book – Retail Value: $6.29
With a retail value of $52.77, through Austin Lloyd as a one month subscription, it would have cost $49.99 with free shipping. At a 6-month subscription level, it would have cost $44.99 with free shipping.
After examining the toys, I immediately liked the Melissa & Doug Rainbow Caterpillar best for our 22 month old. It seemed the most simplistic and yet eye catching. It turns out that this is actually a favorite of all four of our kids. Spinning the gears is great for dexterity and the pieces can be placed any where on the caterpillars body. I like the fact that once I showed our youngest that the colors can be matched, he placed them all accordingly. This is a great toy for learning and fun.
The bird whistle, while I thought would be another favorite, was too hard for our youngest. Small children tend to place their entire mouth on things and the air hole is so close to the end that he covers it and can’t get any sound out. While he continues to try, he has yet to figure this one out. Our older children, however, love this toy. Word of warning: it is a loud whistle!
The Butterfly Shape Sorter Puzzle says 18 months + but our 22 month old needs assistance. The pieces are slightly difficult to get back on and nearly impossible for a child to get back on all in the same direction. While the pieces can be put on in any direction, which prevents frustration, the wings are not uniform and it is still slightly difficult to line the pieces up. I love all the colors but I really feel this should have a higher age on it as even our 3 year old struggles to line all the pieces up. Actually, even I have a hard time with some of them at times.
The Garden Hut Puzzle has the great feature of chunky wooden knobs. The one improvement I’d really like to see with this puzzle is to have the image below the pieces too. For puzzles geared to 18 months +, seeing the image and being able to match them helps young children connect where the pieces go. When our youngest removes all the pieces, he struggles to find the correct hole back. The biggest issue seems to come with the “tool shed” as three single pieces need to be aligned to fit into one hole. However, our 3, 6, and 9 year old are able to enjoy this puzzle fine, it’s just slightly difficult for younger kids.
The Little Gardener Book is adorable. Plus, the pages can be flipped open to reveal additional images and all four kids love it. Sturdy board books are a favorite of mine and I really like the ones that include something for the kids to do such as: touchy/feel pieces, flip pieces, or things like that. So this is perfect for us and helps engage even the youngest listener during story time.
Austin Lloyd also supports giving back to communities. The Austin Lloyd box can be used to ship back any gently used previous Austin Lloyd toys that are no longer being used by your family and they, in turn, donate those to their partner organizations. They even provide a shipping label to get the box back to them.
Overall, I am really happy with the service Austin Lloyd provides. Even the products that didn’t quite suit our youngest will be grown in to by him. For now, our older children get to enjoy them. I like that I was introduced to new products that we would otherwise have not known about or been able to enjoy.
Buy It: Head over to Austin Lloyd to see for yourself all they offer.
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Win It: Austin Lloyd is generously offering one of our lucky readers a One Month Subscription to Austin Lloyd. The giveaway is open to US only and will end May 21st, 2014. For your chance to win, enter the Giveaway Tools below. Good luck!
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I’m a city girl turned country by my awesome husband and we have three busy boys and two darling daughters. I love spending time with my family, reading Karen Kingsbury novels, and catching up with friends while our kiddos have play dates. I’m blessed beyond measure and can’t wait to see what God has in store.
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This post currently has 2 responses.
I’ve been wanting to try them for a while but I just can’t swing the cost! They look so great!