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.
My Random Thoughts 