What is it about Vikings that make them so appealing to children? Is it their sense of adventure? Their innovations? Their passion for love and war? My own children have been searching out all things Viking since they went to a Viking festival earlier this year. We didn’t have to search too far afield for a great resource; it landed straight through our letterbox! If you’re looking for a fun and educational gift that keeps giving each month, read on! We’ll tell you all about Mysteries In Time Viking explorers box.
You may remember our review of the award-winning Mysteries In Time’s Ancient Egypt box last year, and it was of such a high quality we were excited when they asked us to review another box for them! They now have 12 boxes to run a full year’s subscription. Because we are doing a review we were kindly allowed to choose a box, and the Viking box was the first box both children immediately drawn to.
What’s in the Viking box?
The children opened up the Vikings box and explored the contents. They consisted of
- A book, Max And Katie’s Viking Adventure
- A booklet filled with interesting facts about Vikings
- 3 colouring pages
- A packet of pencil crayons for colouring
- Instructions and printed cardstock pieces to cut out and build a Viking longship
- A glue stick for the craft project
- Stickers for the timeline map included with the first subscription box
- A postcard of the Viking Runes which the kids keep on the kitchen wall for writing coded messages
- In this box the surprise gift was a pencil showing the Viking Runes alphabet and topped with a Viking ship! This is a wonderful surprise and will keep my little adventurers motivated to do their work so they can learn more about the world
How Did The Kids Use The Vikings Box?
Tristan and Kallista like to start by sitting together and reading the Max and Katie adventure book to give them some entertainment, background, and anticipation before jumping into the rest of the box. And of course, putting their stickers on the timeline and map is always fun! (The map comes with the first subscription box).
The Booklet of facts is a great way to learn interesting tidbits about Vikings, such as Thursday is named after the Viking god, Thor: Thor’s Day. These facts are one of my favourite things about the boxes! The kids like to quiz each other or tell us parents random facts as we go about our daily work.
Viking Runes…this is tops for kids who like mysteries or code-breaking! With their Viking Runes postcard on the kitchen wall, and the pencil gift in his hand, Tristan loves to write out words, and whole sentences in code and give them to family members! He made me a very special one when I wasn’t feeling very special at all, that said I love you! Combining compassion with learning is a wonderful thing!
The children each chose a picture (or two for one child) to colour and hang on the wall. There are different designs to suit different tastes. They first cut out the pages from the booklet, coloured them, then cut them around the border before hanging.
Now….it was time for the craft! The kids often leave the craft until last so they can feel rewarded after learning about a topic. One of the many things I love about my children is their ability for delayed gratification. First do the ‘hard’ work, and then have guilt-free fun doing what you love. They worked together to cut out the pieces of the Viking longboat and glue them together. They did it completely on their own while I was busy attending to other household business. They did a great job, too!
What We Think About Mysteries In Time’s Vikings Box
The whole family has enjoyed the Mysteries In Time Viking box! We’ve all learned something new about Vikings; even after going to the Viking festival and borrowing several books from the library on the topic. It can be used as a self-contained box of adventure purely for fun, or combine it with other resources and create a whole unit study about Vikings! Between library books, our field trip, geography classes on Scandinavia, and watching BBC documentaries, our children have learned more about Vikings than I knew at the start of the summer!
As a parent I like that everything you need is included (except scissors, but I’m sure you have a pair at home). This makes the boxes easy to take with you for rainy days of camping (such as we did last year), take them with you for entertainment on long-haul plane rides, train journeys, or road trips.
As a homeschooler I want the activities my children do to have some educational value, and Mysteries In Time fulfils that requirement, too!
From the kids’ point of view, they purely enjoy learning about the world, learning facts, reading the adventures of Max and Katie, and crafting!
Mysteries In Time Details
- Ages: 7-11
- Subscription: 1, 3, and 6 month subscriptions.
- Price: Classic Box, £7.95/month, + postage, Bumper Box, £12.95 + postage
- Where to purchase: Mysteries In Time
- Available: Worldwide
If you’d like to know more or would like to follow Mysteries in Time, you can connect with them through their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
If you could travel back in time, where would you go, and why?
Disclosure: This has been a sponsored post but all of the fun and learning has been ours. All opinions are ours. You can read more in our disclosure policy.
