Flintobox vs Firstcry Intellikit

The market is filled with a wide range of activity boxes for kids…ranging from STEM, and Craft to Curriculum based activity boxes..like to name a few …Flintobox, Magic Crate, Einstein box, Xplorabox and the newly launched Firstcry’s Intellikit. As we all know Firstcry’s aggressive marketing campaign has flooded Facebook and Instagram. I was lucky to win one box in one such giveaway. Before that I had bought few preloved Flintoboxes.

I see many moms inquiring about these activity boxes and decided to do a comparison post between Flintobox and Intellikit. But before that I must inform that the Flintoboxes I have used are from 2017 so I don’t know exactly if they have made any upgradation…Recent users may throw more light on that. Also the boxes I have compared are not of same theme. Finally this is an unpaid and unbiased review.

#1 PRICE – Flintobox is costlier than Intellikit for same 3 month subscription.

# BACKGROUND CONCEPT – Flintobox has not made any effort to highlight the benefits of the activities and how they will develop a child. Their only motto is less screentime. But from what we can gather from the labels is that they cover 12 development areas including fine motor, cognitive and gross motor, creativity, exploration, language, and social skills.

Intellikit has gone all out to highlight how their boxes are based on Montessori philosophy and Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence and to show parents how their kids will benefit from them. Their webpage is full of information on that.

# NUMBER OF ACTIVITIES – Each Flintobox box has 3-7 activities and 1 story book. In addition to the box, one who has the subscription will receive 5 per month activity videos + 10 per month worksheets over email.

The Intellikit I got has 8 activities, 1 story book, 10 worksheets, 1 learning calendar with reward Stars stickers (which is a big hit for positive reinforcement ) and 1 happy tracker to watch and track child’s development.

# LOOK – A box of Flintobox has very simple look and feel. Each activity comes in a separate bag with the label citing the targeted skills and the individual price of the activity (which is not same for each activity and one point which I liked..makes reselling easier 😜😜). The instruction sheet is also simple and short. Instead of a single Happy tracker of Intellikit, each Flintobox instruction sheet has a questionnaire to track child’s development which I felt is a better way.

The box of Intellikit is very attractive. Each activity comes in a separate biodegradable bag with a simple label. But the instruction sheet is very detailed, attractive and tells about the contents like how many pieces of what… something which I found very useful and missing in Flintobox.

Happy Tracker

# QUALITY – Flintobox is like they have given you 5 activities and their job is done. They do provide a simple suggestion sheet for whole month. But Intellikit has made the effort to chart out a whole month of activities including their own through the Learning Calendar. So sticking the calendar, then following each day and putting reward stars is a big attraction for a child. As for the quality of activities, I felt Flintobox has slightly better quality in this case…not only physical quality like sturdiness etc but also quality of the level of the activity. But overall Intellikit packs more punch…delivers more money’s worth.

Learning Calendar

# CHILD ENGAGEMENT – Parental guidance is a must and necessity. Don’t buy activity boxes if you expect the child to remain busy with that on his own. The real fun is in doing the activities together. Also don’t expect the box to engage the child completely through the span of an entire day or month. All the activities are of hardly 15-30 minutes..some are re-playable and some like painting or craft are not. When a child has to be engaged for 5 hours minimum (not talking about a school+daycare going child) then 5 activities meant for a month are not enough. It is just something extra apart from what all a parent does to engage a child like reading books, outside play, free play inside home etc.

So my conclusion is if you want to go for an activity box subscription, I will suggest Firstcry Intellikit as it’s cheaper, more detailed and the quality of activities is quite good and enough for a child for whom the best thing you can spend is your time with him/her.

Advertisement

Fable Verification

Aim – To determine whether the thirsty but clever crow in the famous Aesop fable could really bring the water up by dropping pebbles. (Real aim- to keep the toddler engaged while you work in the kitchen 😉 )

Apparatus required – one clay pot, aquarium stones, water, a bowl, a plate and a naughty toddler.

Procedure – #1 Fill pot with 1/4th water and ask the toddler to put the stones one at a time.

#2 pour out the water in the bowl and the stones on a plate and ask the toddler to repeat.

If you are lucky toddler will love the game and ask for repetition herself.

#3 repeat with 1/2 filled pot of water.

#4 go on repeating till it’s lunch time.

 

Observation – Substantial amount of water is required in the pot for it to rise when volume is occupied by stones. If the water is too less it gets lost within the stones.

 

Precautions– #1 Toddler may break the clay pot.
#2 Mouthing toddlers can’t play this game.
#3 Toddler may not be ready to end game.
#4 Water play means little spill may occur.

Conclusion – There must have been quite a lot of water in the pot ..just out of reach from the crow. (Real conclusion – toddler had lot of fun and was engaged for a good 45 minutes interrupted only by mother herself)

P.S. The professor in me could not resist writing in this manner. 😁

Perfect Mother

 

“There is no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one” ~ Jill Churchill

So the most common question whenever someone talks to you after you have a baby is “So how is motherhood”….And I feel there is an expectation to hear “Ohhh its wonderful, so charming etc etc”only..If you don’t say that there is an underlying fear of being judged and labelled as not having motherly feeling. But the truth which I am sure many moms want to say is its tiring, hectic, exhausting, challenging etc along with the happiness, joy, the high you feel. And I usually can’t fake my replies so I say “it has its own ups and downs” or I say “its different” 😀

This motherhood thing… sometimes I think the famous position in human relations, the epitome of sacrifice, love, etc etc , the person about whom stories are written, shlokas are there…the position about which legends are there…I have become one of them. Mother. It is going to be one year but it is yet to sink in. It also makes me fearful of the level of responsibility, love, sacrifice, dedication, patience etc it symbolizes….God knows if I have that in me…I don’t think so. God knows if I m doing and will do it right. Sometimes I feel I m just winging it. In what world do people get ready for motherhood?? Even after years of getting mentally ready, I think I just got ready for pregnancy and delivery, not the after part of it.

I think every mother faces this thought scores of times in a month. The utopian or lofty image of motherhood is created by media (be it old literature or new portrayals) by people raised by imperfect and human moms but to these children their mom is their mom. So unless there’s a serious psychiatric problem that creates an unsafe situation for the kids – we are all good moms. We all have it in us because motherhood is primal basic and homely. It’s not uniform… it’s unique to each family and individual. It’s not a formula of a stone dropping 1 m in vacuum, it’s variable and a continuous process of feedback and error correction like a flight.

Whatever you have in you, with your flaws and limitations, that’s the perfect motherhood in your context. Your neighbor’s idea of a perfect mother maybe totally different. Not to mention your mother-in-law’s idea WILL BE totally different.

In fact my idea of this whole parenting thing is its like a rugby match…the rugby ball is the child, you are trying to make a touchdown or whatever they do in rugby…and all the players running towards you trying to stop you are Judgement, Unsolicited Advice, Competition, and Comparison. 😀

If you ignore all this and do what is right for a child in terms of nutrition and development – physical, emotional, behavioral and mental, then you are the perfect mother for your child. Remember you are human….not the superhuman image of mother which has been imprinted in our minds. You are allowed to be imperfect and make mistakes.

Motherhood Insights

I was toying with the idea of compiling my tweets on motherhood as a post since many days. Now when NaBloPoMo has come along, what better way to write a quick post? 😀

So here are few of my reflections on motherhood…This may as well become a quarterly post series because the reflections and insights are going to continue for a long time!!

#1 Eyes poked,nose bitten,lips pinched, stomach trampled,back beaten,neck slobbered on,face slapped,hair pulled…. Violence mothers face!

#2 So Indigo announced “quiet zones” aka child-free zones in their flight. Whoever came up with the idea that a child-free zone can save passenger from noise of a bawling baby inside an aeroplane,has never traveled with one. Unless of course those special seats are surrounded by noise proof walls. Bose headphones would serve better.

#3 Whoever said we must chew our food 32 times before swallowing, didn’t have a baby.Mothers should win fastest eating competitions.

#4 Dear MorisonsBaby why would you stick flowers on baby shoes? Baby pulled it out. Decor should be sewed on baby stuff.

#5 I intentionally skip pages in touch-feel baby books,those which when scratched make horrible sound like chalk on board or nails on wall.

#6 Giving your marriage saree’s blouse for alteration after few years and motherhood shows how “far” you have gone. Not to mention it’s depressing.

#7 The key beings behind the whole social structure, the act of socializing etc are babies. They make you open up to neighbors, strangers, all. From not talking to neighbors & not knowing 95% of them, I’ve become quite social now.As long as there is no unsolicited advice. And maybe soon I will join the ranks of people posting coloring competition certificate their kids won in kindergarten. *Eye Roll*

#8 Doctors say sleep is very important for babies’ physical and mental health..baby’s sleep is important for mom’s health too especially mental.

#9 Baby laughing in sleep is just another one of the cutest things in life.

#10 I feel cannibalistic instinct when baby is so cute.To nibble those toes,pinch those cheeks and chomp on that butt.But you just suffice with kisses.

#11 Shake shake..bang bang…mouth!! No that’s not lyrics of any song. That’s the process steps of “how to deal with an object” by baby.

#12 Nobody knows “perfect timing” better than babies.The moment you take off diaper they pee and Nobody knows “in nick of time” better than mothers.

#13 The person who came up with lift-the-flap books idea didn’t have kids of his/her own. Or maybe those flaps are meant to be torn apart.

#14 Even a newly wedded wife doesn’t wait for husband to come home from office as eagerly as an alone stay-at-home mom.

#15 Babies are superheroes with their capes aka bibs on their front rather than on back.

#16 Goddess Durga wud have been great at feeding time….one hand to feed, one to entertain,one to hold,one to scratch a sudden itch etc. Mulling on Goddess Durga…she takes multitasking to another level.

#17 Necessity is the “mother” of all inventions not father because moms arethe ones that need to come up with new tricks to feed, change, bathe etc

#18 The original version is “Smelly mom,smelly mom, what is the baby spitting on you? Smelly mom, smelly mom It’s not your fault”

#19 Two persons can never ever have cleanliness OCD …maids and mothers. One will lose income and the other sanity.

#20 That time of life when instead of worrying about body curves, we worry about the percentile curve of length, weight & head circumference and shape!!

Election Campaign

My dear bloggers, I am a humble servant of the blogosphere. I have dedicated my life to serve posts to the people of blogopshere and work for the development of their minds and enrichment of their knowledge. If you vote for me, I promise to bring spammers under control and check spam rise. When I become Prime Blogger, I will assure employment and food for thought for all readers and commenters. Once I become PB, I will crack down on all trolls and make blogosphere a safe and peaceful place. I will work for cooperation and peace between Blogspot and WordPress. Under my primebloggership, blogosphere will flourish. Every blog will get hits and good comments. I’ll work for the better quality and length of posts. Every worthy blog will be featured on homepage instead of that irritating two yellow boots who always talks about Sarah Palin. So vote for me and ensure a better blogosphere.

Yours truly, Reemawati.

(Read between the lines : Give me vote and I’ll give you money. I’ll give you blankets for winter and sarees to your wives. Just let me become PB then I’ll end all criminal cases against me and fill my Swiss Bank Account.)

Motherhood – Necessity or Choice?

This article came in a Hindi daily on the necessity of motherhood for a woman. The author of the article is a female gynaecologist. One or two sentences in the article seemed to emphasize too much on the importance of motherhood for a woman to feel happy, healthy and to feel complete. “A woman’s body is made in such a way that childbirth keeps her happy in mind and healthy in body”; “A child is an inseparable part of woman’s body, her whole life’s spindle and aim too.”