We received our Garden-themed box from Koala Crate this month – perfect for summertime! This kit was very much about Travis playing with the items in his own way, not necessarily as “intended”, but there’s nothing wrong with a crate that simply prompts ideas and play!

As always, Travis was eager to lift the lid and see what was inside this time around. The first project, a Gardening Apron to decorate, was a huge hit – not so much to decorate, but to try on and to put the gardening tools inside of.

The kit came with string and felt flowers/leaves to decorate the apron, but he preferred to scoop the felt items and pretend he was planting them (cupcake liners made great “flower pots”!).

I finally coaxed him into helping decorate the apron as intended, which was good lacing practice, before I finished it for him. You’ll notice that he adorned the apron with pencil scribbles as the finishing touch, in the photo at the top of this post!

Travis also did things his own way when it came to building the Growing Plant; he loved squeezing drops of the provided glue, meant to glue on tissue paper flower buds, but instead he wanted to stick the cardboard leaves together.

I let him have fun his own way while I pressed on the “flowers” so he could see the final, intended result.

Once the glue dried and it was time to slot the cardboard leaves and stems of the plant together, he decided we should “drill” it together!

The final “project” this month was a bit of a disappointment – a book to read along with the growing plant, rather than another craft, which I felt could have been included in Imagine magazine.

However, the story is a nice vocab builder, and touched off discussion about plants and gardening.

The biggest hit by far? The provided recipe to make your own, homemade lemonade!