Flora, Alan and I were very lucky to trial a brilliant new kids monthly subscription box from Mud and Bloom* last month. Now it’s time to see if February’s box is equally as fantastic!
About Mud and Bloom boxes
If you didn’t catch our January review, here’s a quick recap. The boxes arrive addressed to your child through the letterbox at the beginning of every month. They include at least two seasonal activities: one gardening and one nature craft – along with instructions, quizzes, and games. All this is aimed at teaching children about the seasons, plants, insects, birds, soil and rainfall. Everything you need is provided – instructions, seeds and even compost, so you don’t even need to have your own garden.
The boxes are aimed at 3-8 year-olds and the activities have been created by qualified teachers. They support the EYFS, KS1 and KS2 national curriculum, with influence from Forest School, Montessori and Steiner education.
February’s box
So, let’s see what this month’s box contained:
- instructions for growing cherry tomatoes (organic seeds and compost pellets provided)
- instructions for growing basil (organic seeds and compost pellets provided)
- some acrylic paints, a paintbrush, and tips for painting pebbles
- a fact sheet and things to look out for in February
- a checklist of flowers to be seen in February
- and a quiz.
Tomatoes and basil
We eat cherry and baby plum tomatoes like sweets in this house and I use basil all the time, so these were great seeds to get.
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After gobbling some fromage frais, we washed and punched some holes in the bottom of the pots. Then we put the four organic peat free compost pellets in some warm water. WOW! they grew so fast, it was amazing! I wish I’d taken a picture of the dry pellets (like a thick 10p piece) because once they’d swelled up they looked completely different.
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We put two tomato seeds and a pinch of basil seeds into each pellet and covered them over. Then we put them on our window ledge to wait for germination (10-14 days, hopefully) and covered the basil with plastic as it needs warmth. And, if you look closely, you can see that one of our avocado stones from January has started rooting, YAY! (I turned it upside down for this photo, the root’s back in the water now).
Painting pebbles
Flora never needs an excuse to get her paints out. Our driveway is full of Cotswold Stone gravel, which are – handily – a great size for painting. This was an activity that she could do all by herself: choosing, washing, drying her stones and then decorating them. With no interference help from me, this was easily her favourite activity in the box.
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Facts, flowers, and quiz
The Nature News sheet was full of fun facts again this month – did you know that birdsong amps up this month as birds start marking out their territories? Flora was delighted to get all her quiz answers correct again 🙂 And she could tick off seeing all the spring flowers in our garden, except for the aconites, which she’s seen at school.
Will we be subscribing?
Flora has absolutely loved the activities in the last two boxes and we’ve really enjoyed spending time doing things with her that don’t involve any kind of electronics. As I mentioned last month, I think these Mud and Bloom boxes are a brilliant way of getting the whole family involved in and learning about nature. And for only £7.95 including UK P&P, I don’t see how you can go wrong. So, yes, I don’t think there’s any doubt at all, we’ll be signing up! And I’m also thinking about getting a gift subscription for her cousins in Scotland, so they can compare notes. Massive thanks again to Anja Ffrench of Mud and Bloom for letting us trial these first two boxes, we’re really excited for our March box now!
If you weren’t tempted by our review of Mud and Bloom’s January’s box, has February’s box changed your mind? If so, you can and use our code LISASNOTEBOOK to receive a 50% discount on your first box. Be quick though, the code expires at the end of this month!
* We were gifted this February box for review but all opinions and photos are our own and this is an honest, unbiased review.
Cherry tomatoes and basil… Sounds like a perfect pizza! Please try and make your own pizza from your own ingredients when they’re grown, I’d love to see a post about that! I remember painting and decorating pebbles when I was younger, always loved that!
I had thought that too but, sorry to disappoint you, cooking is not really my thing! Fruit spirits on the other hand … 🙂 We still have to varnish the pebbles so the paint won’t run in the rain but it was such good fun on wet half-term afternoon! x
These boxes are such a great idea to encourage creativity in children! I love how they are educational as well as lots of fun too! I remember painting pebbles when I was younger. I also love the idea that you are getting Flora’s cousins a subscription too so they can all compare notes. Lovely post Lisa! Looking forward to seeing what’s in the March box now <3
TBH, I quite fancy pebble painting myself, so it’s a good job we’ve got plenty of stones on our drive and there’s still some paint left in the tubes! Yes, I can’t wait to see what’s in March’s box either, the year really has got off to a fab start with these boxes! x
I’m so happy you’ve loved these boxes! They sound amazing and so educational! They definitely need to make one for adults!
I really do owe you a big thank you for pointing them out to me so THANK YOU! They are so much fun and actually they’re great for adults too – I quite fancy some pebble painting this weekend, haha, x
So there are no kids in my life, I haven’t been 8 for a very long time and I don’t really have anywhere that I could grow vegetables BUT this looks great. It appeals to me even as an adult considering I know zero about gardening doing it in a kid friendly way sounds like fun. And it sounds like you’re growing your own pizza here. Who wouldn’t love that?! x
Sophie
http://www.glowsteady.co.uk
You don’t need to have kids to love these boxes, haha, who doesn’t get a thrill from growing something from scratch? I do every time! Sadly I won’t be making pizza but I will be popping them with some fresh mozzarella and basalmic vinegar in due course – how does that sound?! xx
Awh this is such a great idea! The painting pebbles is lovely – you could create a display on a shelf. Fab review as always Lisa xx.
Rebecca
Wow, that’s such a great idea! I don’t think Flora has any intention of displaying them anywhere other than her room but if we clear away some of her junk then there’s a perfect little spot on her bookcase – great tip, Rebecca, thank you! x
This subscription box looks fantastic and great for involving the whole family ? I really love the pebble painting- such a great idea. I think I may give this a go I’m sure Leo would love it.
Melanie | http://www.frasersfunhouse.com
Honestly, we’ve had so much fun with these boxes, I’m subscribing next week so we get the March box too. It’s such a simple idea, I can’t believe no-one’s done it before but the content and educational aspect is spot on and I think that’s what makes the boxes stand out. Let me know if you do get one for Leo – we can compare notes! x
These boxes are so interesting for the kids. This will develop interest in gardening which is so relaxing. Flora did a great job painting the pebbles these are looking so cute. My mum always just plants the seeds and take care of the plants. I used to do this earlier but now since I travel for longer period of time during my vacations I don’t like the plants dying without water. So I have stopped. I wish I lived in a place like yours where you have your own backyard or garden to do these activities. Lovely post Lisa. 🙂
Thank you 🙂 Flora does have an interest in gardening already (luckily!) but these boxes have certainly capitalised on that. And the activities have been so much fun. Really looking forward to our March box now! xx
These mud boxes keep getting cuter! Like I really think it’s such a fun and productive way for kids and parents to have fun. And it’s torally organic and yummy ? talk about cute little pizzas, with those basils and tomatoes. Yet another fun parent and child moment. I think flora would love if you kept up with it. Nice post Lis! ??
xx Lena
Aw, thank you, Lena. Honestly, these boxes are so much fun, I’ve learned lots as well as Flora, we’re really looking forward to our March box now! xx
That’s a great box to keep kids busy and it reminds me when I was a kid and my dad tought us how to grow plants in a pot in our bedroom, it was so much fun and educational.
Yiota
pinkdaisyloves.blogspot.com
It really is a great box, so much fun and I learned things too, not just Flora, haha! Your dad sounds amazing, I wish mine had done that with me! x
This has made me want to decorate all the pebbles in my garden… I would be there for a very long time, haha!
Aw, that sounds lovely! We’ve still got plenty of paint left over so I think Flora will be doing the same 🙂 x