It was another usual day for me with my toddler chanting ” Mom, I am bored,let us do something” , I was surfing through the internet searching for some  creative activity to engage him, when the ad in the Facebook caught my eye.

It read ” Cut down your child’s TV time, and make that time productive but not missing out the fun”  Well, that sounds interesting, clicked to see what it is all about, as I was desperately trying to reduce my son’s TV time.

Browsed through the Flintobox Website and it sure didn’t disappoint me, was astonished to see that the creators have gone to incorporating 20 different developmental needs of children and teach them in a Fun Way!

Story Behind Flintobox

It is the brainchild of Vijaybabu, one of the co-founders and dad of 5 year old Aadhav. A concerned dad, he couldn’t find things to keep his son engaged with meaningful and developmental activities at home. He realized that he neither had the time nor the relevant knowledge to curate the best developmental activities for his son. This need motivated him to create Flintobox. Â

After reading all this information about Flinto, I wanted to try out Flintobox for my son and the Flinto team happily sent the “The Veggie Champ” Flintobox for review.

FlintoBox – The Veggie Champ Review

Our experience with Flinto started with a darling mail  informing that the product has been shipped. He was real excited about the arrival of the flintobox. As the tracking details were also provided I had to track daily ‘n’ number of times to check about the impending arrival of FlintoBox.

Flinto finally arrived and my son was super excited as it was addressed to him.

The Box was packed deftly to sustain the shipping ordeals with all the contents and activities carefully wrapped in polythene covers.

What is in the FlintoBox?

The Veggie Champ contains

1. Create – My Vegetable Family

This was one good fun activity which we enjoyed creating. A Board and vegetable cut out sticker is provided. The sticker has to be peeled off and the colored sand sprinkled throughout the surface of the vegetable. It was thoughtful to include a messy mat as my son made a huge mess of the colored  sand and the glue. Although my son knows the names of the vegetables, he wasn’t sure of the colors . So we took out a carrot, brinjal, beetroot and tomato from fridge and I showed him the colors and shapes of all the four. With the coloring done , we pasted our passport sized photos to make the whole family.

Then was the proud moment, with the help of wall stickers provided the “Family Portrait” was put up on the wall along with the DIY crafts.

The whole activity was completed within an hour or so and my son didn’t want to quit. So I stenciled out the shapes in a plain A4 sheet and he enthusiastically colored the veggies 🙂

2. Play – LittleChef

My son is so fond of cooking, he has a cooking range!! a whole set of kitchen utensils both in plastic and silver.

So when I told him the game is to “Make Soup” he was thrilled and put out all his utensils for making the soup. I took out the board and explained to him how to play the game, he wasn’t very happy as his culinary expertise was not being used 😉  Once he and his playmate (my maid) started playing it was all fun and he learnt a lot more vegetable names in “The Fun Way” It is just like our memory game but more innovative and exciting.

3. Explore – Healthy Eating Made Fun

This kit had a gift wrapped box, and gifts always excites my son 🙂 Before I could read the instructions he had already started to open the box. When he knew that he had to eat veggies , earn stars and then open the gift, all his excitement waned off  and he  didn’t show any interest in the activity. I explained to him the goodness of each vegetable and how the points have been distributed and challenged him with his baby sister as who will win the gift. We have the the score card on the wall with weeks divided between the two of them. Awaiting the results 🙂

This activity helped me to explain him what each veggie  for, like carrot for eyesight, beetroot for blood formation and so on. We have created another calendar wherein we note the veggie he had a particular day and what part of his body was benefited.

4. Read – Where is my carrot?

We read ” Where is my carrot?” as our bedtime story. My son is just learning 2 letter words now, I had to read and narrate the story. A story always gets interesting with animals characters in it. So we have done reading more than a dozen times for the last week.

You can also download The Flinto Story Reader App  . It is a visually enriched Read to Children App where flinto and his friends come alive to enthrall your children. It is currently available in Tamil, Hindi and English, more languages to be added soon. My son enjoyed listening stories in the Flinto App as the voiceover coincides with the picture and he can relate to what is happening in the story.

5. Grow a Plant.

We have a small balcony garden in our apartment. The Flinto Grow a Plant was  added to the balcony garden and it was solely left in care of the budding gardener (who expected a plant the very next day after sowing the seeds!!!)

My son had lot of questions like

• How does a plant eat??
• From where does it grow??
• How can a small seed become a plant with leaves and flowers??
• Why it takes so long for the plant to grow?

So with all his questions answered through practical explanations we are waiting for the plant to sprout. Will update soon 🙂

Now on to the most important part of the post

What I Found Flintobox to be

1. Creativity

The flintobox is designed in a such way that it kindled the creativity in my son, which I thought was non existent!! Each activity sparked so many doubts and queries in him that I tried to evolve each activity to something more.

2. Kid Friendly materials

All the materials used for creating the activities were kids friendly with no sharp edges. The soup bowl was sturdy and easy for the kids to hold and play. The book was of good quality thick paper to withstand the frequent rough up by the kids. The colored sand, sand for the plant, seeds were provided in separate zip lock pouches which were easy for handling and reuse.

The addition of a messy mat was very thoughtful, as kids always tend to create a huge mess while doing such activities.

3. Cures TV Addiction

As claimed by the creators, it did drive my son away from TV for a couple of hours daily for 4 to 5 days till we completed all the activities.

4. Actionable

I loved the concept of rewarding for eating veggies which are actionable throughout the month and he had some vegetables which he has never had before. Also the “Grow A Plant”  concept helps the kids understand ” Why growing trees is healthy for our environment?”

5. Pricing

Each Flintobox is priced at Rs 1095, and 3 or 6-month subscriptions work out more cheaper. The Flintobox is fairly priced considering the quality of materials used for creating the activities.

6. Need more activities

The only downside I found about flintobox is that all the activities were done within 2 or 3 days(kids do not have the patience to open 1 activity per week). If the creators could include more activities that could engage the kids for a longer duration, it will be very useful. Yes, there is also the element cost factor to be considered, even then it would be great to have more activities.

Verdict

My recommendation is

“It is a definite buy (read subscription) for kids between 3 and 7 years old if you wish to cut down the TV time and increase their creativity”.

Where to Buy

You can click Here to buy.

Tell us by commenting below ” How do you cut down your kids TV Time? “

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