Mud & Bloom Subscription Box Review

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We are very lucky to have a large back garden and when the weather is nice, we are out there as much as possible. With the help of the nursery she goes to, Erin is becoming really interested in nature. She loves to look for bugs and the garden and we’re always talking about what flowers and plants we can see when we’re out and about. I have to be honest and say that I’m really not very good at outdoor activities and I sometimes struggle with thinking of things to do with Erin. We were recently sent a Mud & Bloom subscription box to try out with Erin.

The Mud & Bloom subscription box offers nature crafts and gardening activities for children aged 3-8. Prices start at £10.95 for a single boxes or £13.95 for a Siblings box. Shipping is free in the UK. You can subscribe on a month to month basis or purchase larger bundles of 6 or 12 months. The box can fit through the letterbox too so there’s no need to worry about it not being delivered at the beginning of the month!

Inside the box you get 4 seasonal activities with the majority of the items you’ll need. This is what the June box included:

Activity cards

Paints

Sugar cubes

Sunflower seeds

Courgette seeds

Twine

Cotton wool

2x label sticks

Peat free compost pellets

Butterfly quiz

All of the activities are really nicely laid out with clear instructions on each card. I also really liked that the activities were colour coded so it was easier to make sure you have the right items for each one. Small details like this really make you see that a lot of thought and care have gone into these boxes. Things like this not only make the activity easier for the child but also the adult helping.

Flower head printing

The first activity we chose to do from the June Mud & Bloom box was ‘flower head printing’. I had been saving this one for a day where I knew we’d be stuck in the house for a while so Erin and I went out to pick some flowers the afternoon before. It’s best if your flowers are picked fresh on the day you’d like to use them otherwise they can wilt or close up overnight. We didn’t really have the chance to do this but luckily most of our flowers survived and we had plenty to paint with.

We have a really large sectioned plate (great charity shop find) and this was ideal for the paints. I explained to Erin that we could only use a flower for one colour of paint and we had to keep anything we used in that same section of the plate so it didn’t all get mixed up. Erin was really careful to put the flowers back after she’d used them in case she wanted to again.

As soon as we started painting Erin was really surprised at what patterns were being printed on her paper. She kept looking at the flower then the paper and wondering about what other patterns she could make. I really loved seeing her so interested in what she was making and how much fun it was.

After we used each of the colours separately Erin realised that she could use one flower print on top of another to make something else completely so we started experimenting a bit on another piece of paper. Sometimes it can be quite hard to get Erin to concentrate on an activity like this for long enough to really get something out of it. However, this was something she really enjoyed and has already asked if we can do it again sometime.

As we’re going on holiday tomorrow we have saved our planting activities for when we get back to give them the best chance of growing well. With there being four activities in the box they can either all be done on the same day or maybe spread out over each weekend in the month. Doing this would definitely help me think of something new to do each week.

I really love that the Mud & Bloom subscription box helps children to do something different and helps parents who maybe can’t think of these kinds of activities, like me! The box isn’t full of plastic that will get thrown to one side and the activities are so helpful and educational. If you think about breaking the box down into something to do each weekend, it only costs around £3 (or less) per activity and for me, that’s great value.

To get 15% off a first single or sibling box use the discount code MEHIMTHEDOGANDTHEBABY on the Mud & Bloom website. Valid until 14th July 2019.