A few years ago, we started searching for toy and gadget alternatives for Christmas and birthday gifts because adding more ‘stuff’ to the shelves and toy bins with each holiday began to feel excessive. With five kids, our accumulation was getting a bit ridiculous. In our quest, we stumbled upon subscriptions as gifts, and we’ve found them to be excellent options. We have gifted subscriptions for several years now, and our kids have loved them!

Below are some subscriptions for kids and teens that we have given to our kids and other friends. There are loads out there, but these are a few I can personally recommend.

Kiwi Company Subscriptions

We have had subscriptions to several of Kiwi Company’s boxes, and my kids love them! When my kids were younger, we had a subscription to Kiwi Crate (craft projects for ages 5-10), and now we have a subscription to Tinker Crate (science and engineering projects for ages 9-16). I’m not crafty like my oldest daughter or engineer-minded like my oldest son, so these monthly boxes have provided opportunities for my kids to explore their interests in areas where I don’t naturally have much to offer. In addition to Kiwi Crate and Tinker Crate, Kiwi Company now has a whole line of boxes covering topics from crafts and art to engineering and science. The youngest version is Koala Crate, which is for ages 2 to 4 years old, and the oldest crates are Maker Crate and Eureka Crate, which are for ages 14 to 104 years old (per their website – so you might even find grandma’s gift there).

Magazine Subscriptions

We’ve had multiple magazine subscriptions over the years, and this is another big winner with my kids. Magazines are great because they can be shared among the family. Below are a few my children have enjoyed.

Highlights – Educational Children’s Magazine (ages 6-12)
Clubhouse Jr – Christian Magazine for Young Children (ages 3-7)
Clubhouse – Fun, Christian Magazine for Kids (ages 8-12)
Brio – Engaging, Christian Magazine for Teen Girls (ages 12-18)

Kindle Unlimited

We just subscribed to Kindle Unlimited this year, and I truly do not know why we waited so long! We are forever needing new books, and we are rarely in awesome standing with the public library. Every time I go in there I owe about as much as if I would have just bought all of the books on Amazon. That being said – Kindle Unlimited saves us money.
Some of my kids use it on Kindles, and some of my kids use it on the Kindle app on another device. Conveniently, Kindle Unlimited works on both. Once you join, you have the ability to pick from a huge selection of books in the Kindle Unlimited library and read them for free. It’s definitely worth the $9.99 per month in my book. See what I did there? 🙂

There you have it. That’s my roundup of subscriptions. Have you given subscriptions as gifts to your children or teens? If so, share your favorites in the comments. I’m always looking for parent tested and approved gift ideas!

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