Little Hands Learning | Party Box

“A monthly subscription box, inspired by the magic of books.”

It feels so long ago now, but September’s Little Hands Learning box had a really lovely party theme – which was perfect, as Alfie is a September baby. He really enjoyed this box, I think perhaps, as we could relate it to his celebrations and centre the activities around our plans.

The box was inspired by the book Never Ever Ever Ask a Pirate to a Party, by Clare Helen Welsh and Anne-Kathrin Behl. This was a fantastically vibrant and fun adventure – which saw a dragon, a dinosaur, a unicorn, a pirate, and a spaceship full of aliens attend a party… you can only imagine the chaos! Alfie was pleased that this book – like all Nosy Crow books – had the ‘Stories Aloud’ feature, which invites you to scan a QR code to hear the audio recording of the story. I’m always more than happy to read, but sometimes he’ll ask for a “phone story” and this is what he means!

The activities were:

• Designing a carnival mask
• Crafting party bunting
• Making playdough cakes
• Writing your own invites

Party Time!

Alfie went straight to the carnival mask, which was a fantastic scratch art activity – and we were provided with the scratching tool in addition to the mask (on an elastic). He enjoyed mark making, watching the different colours appear from the surface, and then decided to go a bit rogue, drawing some shapes. As you can see, he modelled it beautifully I love activities like this, as they’re simple yet fun, but best of all, mess-free! It was such a good chance to get creative and design something as brightly coloured as you’d find at the Rio Carnival!

We did the bunting together, and it was such a lovely thing… I cut the tissue paper sheets into smaller pieces, making it easy to pick up and stick the colours we wanted. Meanwhile, Alfie read the instructions aloud – and was telling me what to do! We had a done a similar activity in a previous box – the rainbow box from February 2022 (I didn’t include it in this review, it seems). We had 12 card triangles to create the bunting and I have to say, the results were pretty inconsistent… some of the triangles had complementary colours, others had contrasting, while some were very patchy, where we clearly didn’t use enough water! Instead of using the bunting for a party, I used some number and letter stickers we had lying around, and have decided to use it for a “Welcome Baby” bunting… I cannot wait!

Let’s Bake a Cake!

Alfie has always been into Play-Doh food (he has all the sets) and making things for imaginative play – so I knew he would love this. He was so pleased to see a tub of playdough in his box, as in his words “I’ve not had playdough for a long time, have I mummy?” – and we also had the paper cake cases, coloured matchsticks (for candles) and coloured rice (for sprinkles) to make some fantastic birthday cakes. Alfie enjoyed counting the candles, making sure he used a different number for all the ones he created. Don’t they look good enough to eat?

We love that everything is include and a lot of the time, the items can be reused. The boxes avoid single-use plastic, and the ‘rubbish’ can be recycled or put in a compost bin. The books always tie in fantastically with the theme of the box and the activities – and best of all, every time, we receive something new, different, and exciting!

The party box is still available as a one-off box, if you’re interested – or why not check out the Christmas shop for any last-minute gifts. Since my last post, Alex and Isabell have also added these incredible mini kits to the shop – without the book, you can still enjoy the fabulous activities that would be included in a standard Little Hands learning explorers and investigators box – and there’s plenty of choice, so take your pick. And remember to follow @littlehandslearninguk on Instagram to see the latest boxes, parenting tips and other educational activities.

Love, Lucy xx