Bring on the weekend...The Weekend Box has arrived (plus get your hands on one of your own for FREE!)

It's not often as early in the week as this that I start to look forward to the weekend, but today our Weekend Box arrived through the letterbox and we can't wait to get started.

The Weekend Box fits perfectly through the letterbox so you don't have to wait in for the postman.

What is a weekend box?

A weekend box contains four colour-coded activities laid out clearly on instruction cards along with the key ingredients or resources needed for each activity. Each box contains something to cook, something to make, something to read or write and something green. 

If I'm perfectly honest, whilst I thought the weekend box concept was a winner, I was worried that the quality of the content wouldn't live up to expectations. But having seen the pack for real, it looks very well thought out and put together.

Amazing! One weekend box fitted all this in it!

Who is it aimed at?

It is aimed at children aged 3-8. However, looking at the activities in the box that we received, I could easily see nearly 2 year old Miss T being happy to help with some of the activities. I know that 9 year old J also had his eye on a few things to get involved with. So I have a feeling it won't just be 7 year old D testing it out!

We are planning to work together on the activities but it is definitely worth knowing that Weekend Box offer a box for a second child in the family at a reduced rate if you did wish to get one for each of them. 

Miss T was keen to pose for photos with the Weekend Box

What else do we love about it? 

We are going to be reviewing the box contents in a separate post once we have done them but just wanted to share the excitement of the box arriving! 

By sharing your creations on the Weekend Box facebook page, you get entered into a monthly draw to win a prize. That's always something my kids love to get involved in.

There is also a sticker chart, which, when completed can earn you an extra treat in a future box. Again something that really appealed to my children. 

The Weekend Box arrives every fortnight which sounds like good timing, as some weekends we are really busy with outings and events whilst other weekends we like to stay home and do activities together as a family. The Weekend Box is perfect for this. 

I know from experience that one of the things I value most about my vegetable box scheme is the ability to skip weeks when you don't wish to have a delivery. The same principle applies to the Weekend Box. This is great because if you have lots on or are going to be away, you can simply stop your box for that delivery and then resume when you're back.  

The cost?

These boxes usually retail at £7.50 per box (£4 for an additional box for second child).

Weekend box have very kindly offered our readers their first box completely FREE to try out (including free delivery). Simply go to www.weekendboxclub.com and enter the code REBECCA61 at the checkout.

What's more, if you subscribe in January using that code (REBECCA61), ALL future boxes will only be £5 (instead of the usual £7.50). It is definitely an offer we'll be thinking about taking up ourselves.

A final thought...

I once remember chatting to a mum at a kids birthday party when J was around 2 or 3. She was just approaching her maternity leave to have her second baby but was so anxious about activities she could do whilst at home with her eldest, the 3 year old toddler. 

She had returned to work and he spent most of his time in child care so she had never before had to think about crafts or activities to do with him and it terrified her.

She was desperate for a starting point. Something to give her inspiration and ideas. Something easy and straightforward to do with her 3-year old whilst she juggled life with the new baby. Had the Weekend Box been around then, it would have been the ideal solution.

Whilst we never found ourselves in that same situation as we've always been quite resourceful and good at improvising and ideas with arts, crafts and kids activities, I have to admit that sometimes I wish I had someone else to do the thinking, planning and preparation so that I could just sit down and enjoy my time with the children for the 'doing' bit. 

It's always a frustration when a craft book or recipe has a fantastic step-by-step activity which you know your kids would love but then needs one hard to find ingredient or one key material that can only be found a a specialist craft suppliers and the whole idea has to go out the window at that point. 

The Weekend Box solves that problem by including anything specific that you may need. You might still need a few things that you are extremely likely to have in the house (for example, the gingerbread recipe makes the assumption that flour, eggs etc are kitchen cupboard essentials that you'll already have, but provides the ginger, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda).

Don't forget you can try out your own FREE Weekend Box at www.weekendboxclub.com using the code REBECCA61. Also remember that as an extra special bonus for our readers, Weekend Box have kindly decided that during January anyone using our unique promo code (REBECCA61) and signing up to Weekend Box will also get ALL future boxes for just £5 each (normally £7.50).

We do not receive any benefit from sharing the code for the Free Weekend Box and for the reduced price offer Weekend Box but are happy to share it so that you can discover the Weekend Box for yourselves. You can find Weekend box on facebook and on twitter. 

Update: See photos of how we got on with it here. 

Linking up with My Mummy's Pennies #bargain of the week as we believe the Weekend Box offers fabulous value for money and we've signed up to receive them on an ongoing basis ourselves!