Knowledge Crate Review: Ocean Mini Crate and Ocean Busy Bin (with Price Comparison for Entire Ocean Collection)
May 21, 2024
Disclaimer
This Knowledge crate is supposed to be for children who are preschool aged, meaning 3+. Aryi is now 24 months old as I write this. I thought I would get it anyway. I immediately threw out the water beads. I know Aryi won’t be able to do everything that comes in the crate, but I think we could do enough that would make it worth the purchase. We will be able to do the sensory activities, enjoy the book, ocean animals, and ISPY. I also thought, whatever we don’t use, I can keep it for mommy preschool when he is actually 3.
Ocean Mini Crate
This crate was way too old for Aryi. But, again, I knew that when I bought it. We were able to do about half of the activities out of the box. We were able to play with the Ocean animals and their matching information cards (this is the main reason I wanted the crate). It was so much fun to match the animals with the picture on each information card. We were able to play with the extra animals in our sensory bin. We also learned a few facts about these animals. I love that I can keep these cards and we can come back to this in the future. We were able to use the ISPY. No, Aryi can not figure out how many and write it on the page. He can pick out pink coral with me and we can try to count as we find them. We were also able to paint the 3D dolphin (I put it together after it was painted). This was so much fun and turned out beautiful. It lives on our dining table now. I can pull it apart and Aryi can put it back together when he is old enough to understand how to do it. We were also able to enjoy the Dolphin book.
We were not able to do the adventures in journaling, measuring ocean animals, or the orca silhouette. This is fine. I put these activities away for when Aryi is older and better able to take direction.
Ocean Mini Crate – $39.99
Amazon Price Comparison (some prices are for a multipack of the item)
National Geographic Kids Dolphins Book – $4.99
Instructions Card – not replicable
Animal Information Cards – something you could make or print out for free if you have a printer
Sea Animals – $12.99
3D Wooden Dolphin Puzzle – $6.99
Notebook – $3.98
Pencil – $2.99
Dry Erase Marker – $3.99
Crayola Watercolor Paints – $5.06
Measuring Tape – $3.59
Cork – $3.99
Blue Dyed Rice – $16.99
Story Map – something you could make or print out for free if you have a printer
Measuring Ocean Animals Activity Sheet – something you could make or print out for free if you have a printer
Coral I-Spy Activity Sheets with Coral Reef Facts – something you could make or print out for free if you have a printer
Total – $65.56
Total for me to recreate considering everything I already have or can make for free – $37.61
Ocean Busy Bin
I am so glad I bought this busy bin. We haven’t played too much with kinetic sand. It was nice to use it together with the rice. For Aryi’s safety, I did toss the water beads and put aside the gems (these seeds like choking hazards to me. We did use and enjoy everything else in the kit. Aryi loved hiding the animals, feeling the sand and rice, making balls out of sand, scooping and dumping rice and sand, playing pretend with the umbrella, learning names of the sea creatures, and trying to pinch with the pinchers (still working on that one). There are endless possibilities when it comes to sensory bins, and this is a really good one.
The only suggestion I have is to have the no water beads option for this like they do for the seasonal crate. Some of us would just rather not have them enter our house.
Ocean Busy Bin – $39.99
Amazon Price Comparison (some prices are for a multipack of the item)
Bin – $7.50
Blue and Teal Dyed Rice – $16.99 x 3
Kinetic Sand – $13.99
Sea Animals – $13.64
Umbrellas – $3.99
Starfish – $9.39
Cups – $8.99
Pipe Cleaners – $5.99
Tweezer – $11.71
Sea Urchin – $4.99
Shell container – $13.99
Gems – $6.99
Acrylic Shells – $9.99
Pom poms – $5.99
Water Beads – $9.99
Total – $178.11
Total for me to recreate considering everything I already have or can make for free and without water beads because I threw those out – $76.97
The reason they can make these crates for the price they do probably solely comes down to buying in bulk. It would be crazy for me to buy a pack of 1000 umbrellas for a few dollars, but it makes since for them.
Ocean Busy Bucket
Ocean Busy Bucket – $14.99
Amazon Price Comparison
Ocean Animals – $9.99
Kinetic Sand – $13.99
Crayola Playdough – $5.89
Foam Dough – $8.95
Rolling Pin – $7.99
Tri-grip Thong – $15.43
Popsicle Sticks – $5.49
Total – $67.73
Total for me to recreate considering everything I already have or can make for free – $0.00
I have all of this or a good substitute, that is why I didn’t buy it. Here is a picture of my recreation.
Pricing Hack
When I was buying this I did not realize that if you go to the Mini Crate Page and navigate to the Ocean Crate, there is an option to buy everything for $80.79 as a bundle deal.
Here is the link for that bundle https://www.knowledgecrates.com/collections/mini-crate/products/ocean-mini-crate
If you go to the Ocean Collection, you do not get offered the same bundle. I payed $79.98 for the Mini Crate and Busy Bin. Less than $1 more to buy the entire bundle (Mini Crate, Busy Bin, and Busy Bucket) if you buy through the link I shared.
Knowing this now, I wish I had bought the entire bundle. Do I think the Bucket is worth $14.99? For me, No. Do I think it is worth $0.81? Yeah!
Don’t make the same mistake I did if the entire bundle, or even just the Mini Crate and Busy Bin.
You can check out my related Youtube video by clicking the link below.