January is perfect time for making a calendar. It’s especially perfect for my daughter, who still doesn’t have all 12 months down and gets confused about what month belongs to what season. Because of that this crate is just sheer goodness.

Doodle crate always takes a little longer to complete than my son’s Tinker crate, but that I love the most, because it keeps my daughter busy for a long time. I don’t mind spending $19.95 per month to have her busy drawing, sewing, or working with paper lanterns for hours.

KiwiCo is all about developing STEAM related skills, but Doodle crate is heavier on arts and crafts more than anything else. I am not sure if my daughter has any engineering inclinations, but she is definitely amazing at dancing, singing, and drawing, so Doodle crate is always right on for her.

I like this subscription service because we receive a box each month with a nice project and all the needed materials to complete it included. I have no need for coming up with ideas and going shopping for supplies. I am no good at crafts at all, so my kids were in trouble before KiwiCo came to the rescue.

Since my kids are 8 and 10, they never need any of my help, so I’m just there to record their progress and joy while they are working on their crates totally by themselves. And that’s how I like it!

This Doodle crate is all about drawing with watercolors and figuring out the days of the months. Everything needed is included – wooden frame, paintbrushes, string, elastic cords, watercolor paint set, pen, watercolor paper, and calendar pages.

The project consists of a wooden fame that has two windows, one for the days of the month and another for the watercolor painting that corresponds to the mood of the month and season. The crate includes 8 different watercolor techniques. Even I didn’t know there are so many of them!

The crate encourages mixing dry watercolors with some water and then practicing how they work and how deep the colors get on an extra paper before you start the real calendar drawing. The child can choose if she wants to make all 12 drawings and days of the month recordings right away or make one and then continue making more as those months go by. My daughter did the first one for January and will continue in February. We still need to assemble the wooden frame, but other than that the first month is completely ready.

The first suggested technique is Flat Wash for experimenting with colors. Then it’s Wet on Wet for abstract painting. Next one is Gradient Wash for different depth of colors. Salt Wash is something I didn’t know about, but it looks amazing thanks to salt crystals – we will definitely try that. Sgraffito is made with scratched paper with color over the scratches for deep lines and indentations. Pen Drawing is clear and needs coloring in with watercolors. Straw Painting is painting using a straw instead of paintbrush. Finally, Grazing technique is painting thick lines of colors over one another for a linear pattern. I am not sure how many of these techniques will my daughter want to try, but I will encourage her to try them all.

At the end of Doodle crate’s booklet there are some amazing examples of artwork that can be done using all the techniques and steps how to assemble the calendar frame. 

All in all, the project seems like an ongoing success and we’ll be waiting for another one shortly! Thanks, KiwiCo!