Kids

Playtime by Eimmie is a box subscription service that turns subscribers into “club Eimmie members.”

Members are entitled to a playtime pack each month that contains a set of themed outfits, accessories, and playsets for 18” dolls.

Members also gain access to exclusive content such as downloadable activity sheets for scenarios they can play out with their dolls and outfits.

In essence, Playtime by Eimmie enriches children’s playtime experience with their toys.

How Does Playtime By Eimmie Work?

Like most subscription services, joining Club Eimmie is relatively straightforward: go to their website and purchase the subscription of your choice.

As of this writing, there are currently three subscription packs offered on the Playtime by Eimmie website: the Winter Doll Clothing Playtime Pack, the Summertime Doll Outfit Pack, and the Roller-Skating Doll Outfit Pack.

After selecting the subscription and outfit pack for your child, checkout is relatively easy; there are multiple payment options such as PayPal, Amazon Pay, or credit card payments.

After inputting your billing and shipping details, you can select your shipping options.

One of the excellent features of the Club Eimmie subscription service is that they offer complimentary standard shipping, which is rare in this particular market. Standard shipping takes approximately 2-7 business days.

However, if money isn’t an issue, you can opt-in for UPS Ground (4 business days), or UPS 2^nd Day Air.

Once you receive your playtime pack, let your child’s imagination run wild.

From there, on you will receive playtime packs each month with a brand-new theme, ensuring that your child will have all-new adventures with their toy and not just leave it in the closet to collect dust.

It is important to note that Playtime by Eimmie subscription packs do not include an 18” doll; you’ll need to purchase that separately.

Types of Clothing Available

Each Playtime Pack contains one unique themed outfit for the month, along with several fun accessories and a postcard that your child can fill out and send to their loved ones.

Among the different playtime packs that you can receive are:

• Safari Playtime Pack
• Winter Time Playtime Pack
• Roller Skate Playtime Pack
• Summer Time Playtime Pack
• Baking Playtime Pack
• Camping Playtime Pack

Playtime by Eimmie also offers multiple products at their store, particularly doll furniture, to round out and enhance your child’s imaginative adventure.

Visit their page for a complete catalog of the available products.

Pricing

There are currently three playtime starter packs available on the Club Eimmie website that we mentioned earlier; one box costs $29.99; after the initial purchase, each monthly Playtime Pack will only cost $19.99.

There are multiple payment and shipping options available; standard shipping is complimentary, while UPS Ground costs approximately $13, and UPS 2^nd Day costs around $25 (note that this price will vary according to your location).

At the moment, Playtime by Eimmie only ships to the United States.

Club Eimmie also features Facebook Live prize giveaways from time to time along with free starter packs, so if you’re looking to give the subscription as a gift or want to purchase it for your child, you may want to check in on their social media page from time to time for some significant savings.

Company History

A child’s playtime involves using their imagination to come up with new and exciting ways to have fun.

Using only their imagination, children can travel and have fantastic adventures—from pirate ships in the Caribbean on one day to magical realms on the next.

Playtime is the essence of childhood, and with that in mind, Playtime with Eimmie was established with the mission of creating doll clothing and accessories that encourage real play and assist in the development of a child’s essential life skills.

With the motto “We create the toys, she creates the adventure,” Playtime with Eimmie and Club Eimmie products and subscription services stimulate the child’s imagination and curiosity, pushing their creativity to new horizons while developing their physical, cognitive, and emotional prowess.

Imagination and creativity are crucial to proper childhood development, so each playtime pack and activity is made to help children reach maximum creative potential.

Due to their top-quality service and the content of their subscription Playtime boxes, the company received the Tillywig TOP FUN Award.

Companies are given this award for products and services that exhibit high quality, replay value, fun factor, and creativity, among other criteria.

Alternatives

Not every child enjoys playing with dolls and dress-up, so here are a couple of subscription alternatives that support varied interests and are still great for the development of your child:

• Kid Wonder is a monthly subscription service that provides educational craft and activity boxes for kids and their families. The educational activities are meant to be enjoyed by the whole family, with the goal of helping parents encourage their kids to learn through playtime.
• Cooper and Kid is a quarterly subscription service that targets modern fathers with kids age 5 and up. The Cooper Kit consists of themed projects, toys, books, activities, and ideas that are appropriate for dads and their children, helping them build memories while at the same time aiding in their kids’ development.
• Surprise Ride is a subscription box service by Fat Brain Toys, and their mission is to take back children from screen time. Their box fosters creativity in kids and helps them expand their horizons with specially curated STEM, history, geography, and art content every month.

Pros

• Renewable and open-ended play
• Fosters connection with relatives and friends through postcards
• Screen-free activity
• Award-winning service
• Free standard delivery

Cons

• 18” doll sold separately

Verdict

In a world dominated by screens, whether it’s TV, phones, or tablets, it is crucial that you provide your child with activities that enhance their cognitive development and imagination.

Playtime by Eimmie offers that opportunity with their monthly themed Playtime boxes that help your child create her adventures and long-lasting memories that she will cherish forever.

Can’t decide what kind of toys to buy your child? Maybe you would like to outsource the decision- making to a professional.

How about allowing a pediatric OT help you pick what toys your child can play with and enjoy?

Well, if you want to find out, why not try Sensory TheraPLAY?

How Does Sensory TheraPLAY Work?

Sensory TheraPLAY works by providing you a monthly loot box that contains toys and other learning materials that were handpicked by a licensed pediatric occupational therapist.

It is a subscription service, meaning you can expect a unique box every month.

What this means is that your child will never get bored; as soon as the items from the current box begin to feel routine and stale, a new replacement box will arrive to give new stimulating options for them to use.

The creators of Sensory TheraPLAY have the needs of your child in mind when they decide which toys and other educational items to put into the box.

For the parent, each box has excellent information which gives provides instructions on how to make the most out of everything contained in the loot box.

It will describe each of the items inside and how they can help your child to learn, play, and develop.

Remember—each box is carefully curated to meet the needs of your child, so you have to inform Sensory TheraPLAY as to the unique learning and play requirements for your child, so they can tailor the loot box to what would best suit them.

Pricing

As a subscription service, the Sensory TheraPLAY goes for $39.95 a month plus shipping and handling.

You can save money by ordering for three months, and save even more by ordering a package for six months’ worth of boxes.

Company History

Christina—an occupational therapist living in New York with her partner, two daughters, and an assortment of animals—founded the company while she cut her teeth as an occupational therapist working with children with developmental delays, autism spectrum disorder, neurological impairments, and emotional disturbances.

She has worked with children of various ages up to 5^th grade.

She came up with the idea when she saw that there was an unmet need in her field for something like the Sensory TheraPLAY Box.

Her clients frequently asked her for tips on what toys or activities they should allow their children to have.

Ever the helpful person, Christina was regularly writing out lists to help parents track down useful toys and activities to provide the children at home.

Christina’s husband pitched in, too. He signed her up for a subscription box service one Christmas, and she was enthralled by a seemingly ever-renewing supply of crystals, handmade jewelry, aromatherapy products, books, and other quirky items.

She loved the subscription box concept and made it an integral part of her fledgling product line.

She decided to combine the constancy of monthly subscriptions with her expertise in providing toys and other items for children with special needs.

As a result, Sensory TheraPLAY was born, to provide families with the tools that they need to engage their child in entertaining sensory play, while at the same time promoting their development of critical sensory-motor skills.

As such, her item selection criteria include the following:

• Items that therapists consider their favorites.
• “Tried and True” goodies which have received a lot of positive feedback from parents of special needs children.
• Everyday toys featured in toy stores that aren’t necessarily marketed toward special needs children, but can have developmental and sensory benefits.

Christina has continued the hunt for these types of items and continually integrates them into the Sensory TheraPLAY Box; over time, Christina has gotten better at finding the right things.

The business is slowly growing, and Christina hopes that more and more parents will recognize the value of the Sensory TheraPLAY Boxes.

Alternatives

• Brick Loot – Brick Loot is a subscription loot box service that focuses on providing construction toys; imagine LEGO, but continuously refreshed with new models and pieces. Brick Loot’s mission is to give toy brick enthusiasts what they want.
• Groovy Lab In a Box – The Groovy Lab in a box is designed to awaken the inner scientist, technologist, engineer, or mathematicians in your child, to promote play that will encourage the essential soft skills needed to help your child to appreciate STEM fields.
• Hoot Club – A customized box with three toys will come to your child every month; this box is specially designed for your child’s needs because you answer a questionnaire when you sign up so that the toys are curated for your child.

These three alternatives are also monthly subscription boxes that will allow your child to have a constant supply of toys for his or her enjoyment.

Pros

• A fresh supply of toys and educational items every month
• Christina is a specialist who handpicks the contents of the Sensory TheraPLAY Box, with the intent of meeting the needs of special needs children
• Sensory TheraPLAY Boxes are custom-built for each child; their needs will be met by the Sensory TheraPLAY Boxes no matter what his or her special needs are.

Cons

• A subscription service can become an insidious expense if you do not keep track of the shipments
• This service is limited to providing for special needs children; consider one of the other subscription companies above if your child does not fit this description

Verdict

Finding high-quality, sensory toys that appeal to children with special needs can be complicated.

Always searching online to find new ones that will appeal to the child can be a chore because let’s face it—kids lose interest fast.

They can quickly become bored with the toys and sensory items that they already have.

But if you put your trust in Sensory TheraPLAY, you can always expect a fantastic experience with each monthly box.

Your child will look forward to the arrival of every new box because there will always be something new and innovative to capture their attention.

Today’s children are said to be digital natives; this means that they were born in the age of the internet and compact consumer electronics.

But there is a severe drawback to all this technological savviness; children get hooked on these computers, tablets, and phones (for the sake of ease, let’s refer to them as “screens”).

Sadly, this addiction to screens prevents them from learning the tactile and physical manipulation skills we all learned as children.

As a result, they struggle to do activities that we would otherwise consider easy.

For example, we learn how to use tools by playing with them as children, but since kids today have too much screen time, they don’t know how to use tools.

Enter Surprise Ride by Fat Brain Toys. Surprise Ride can help your child develop normally and undo the harm that screens can cause.

How Does Surprise Ride Work?

Surprise Ride is a subscription service that was designed by parents to help supply your little one with proven learning activities, such as books, or a surprise keepsake or toy to help him enjoy and practice tactile manipulation.

The goal is to facilitate screen-free education; each box will contain items that stimulate your child’s mind and curiosity.

For example, products that promote STEM, history, geography, and art can find their way into each box.

The goal is to help your child discover the enjoyment of play that does not involve a screen.

As with other subscription services, Surprise Ride is delivered right to your doorstep—no need to drive to specialty stores and shop for educational toys for your child.

Fat Brain Toys takes care of all the hard work by selecting good, wholesome toys for your child and then packing them up carefully to ship to you.

After you sign up for a Surprise Ride package, all you have to do is wait for it to arrive—and then have a ball opening it and unpacking its contents with your children.

Now sit back and watch them have hours of fun…or join in!

Pricing

A Surprise Ride subscription is $24.95 a month with an option to sign up for 6 or 12 months; note that the price remains the same whether you pay for a whole year or subscribe one month at a time.

I guess the only practical difference is that a longer subscription will bill your card for a much higher amount outright, while monthly subscriptions will be small monthly payments of $24.95; it’s a matter of remembering to renew each month for the latter.

Company History

Sisters Donna and Rosy Khalife established Surprise Ride; having grown up in a very creative home, they were eager to share this creativity with the rest of the world.

Their father, an artist, always encouraged them to be creative, so he continually invented DIY activities for them beginning at an early age.

Since they were not from a privileged background, they did not have the money to buy the latest toys and gadgets.

Instead, they had to learn to amuse themselves by doing hands-on projects and experiments.

It was this upbringing that allowed them to recognize how different their childhood was when compared to the children of today that spend most of their time staring at screens.

Thus, the sisters resolved that they would create a service designed to help parents encourage offline activity for their children.

Surprise Ride was born out of their passion for DIY projects, and the desire for non-technology-oriented fun and exploration.

In 2018, Fat Brain Toys acquired Surprise Ride, greatly enhancing the Fat Brain Toys product line.

Today Surprise Ride is helping parents get their children off screens and doing hands-on activities.

By providing heaps of fun and hands-on learning, Surprise Ride hopes to encourage and awaken the native creative genius of every child.

They believe that they are developing future innovators and that there is no better way for a child to learn than by doing.

Alternatives

• Hoot For Kids – A customized box with three toys will arrive every month; the box is designed for your child’s needs because you answer a questionnaire when you sign up, which means that the toys are curated for your child.
• Boss Club Entrepreneur Kits for Kids – While Surprise Ride is designed to develop the tactile senses that a screen-addicted child misses out on, the Boss Club Entrepreneur kit is designed to awaken the inner capitalist inside your child. The toys included in this kit are designed to help your child play at starting their own business.
• Creation Crate – This box fosters the engineer inside of your child. While Surprise Ride is there to nurture your child’s creativity, the Creation Crate simulates engineering and invention.

These three alternatives are also monthly subscription boxes that will allow your child to have a constant supply of toys for his or her ongoing enjoyment.

Pros

• You receive a fresh supply of toys and educational items every month
• The toys are designed to help wean your child away from their screen addiction; this is very important in helping the child develop normally.
• Toys are an essential alternative to screens, to help foster socialization and communication skills.

Cons

• A subscription service can become an insidious expense if you do not keep track of the shipments and periodically ensure they are still a worthwhile investment.
• Toys and learning materials will not substitute for good parenting. You should still be present and involved in the creative play activities provided by Surprise Ride, to further the healthy development of your child.

Verdict

Today’s toddlers know more about iPads, iPhones, and Androids than many middle-aged adults.

Permitting young children to have unlimited access to screens slows down their development in many areas because they do not learn to interact with people, situations, and many everyday objects and games.

The mission of Surprise Ride is to foster creativity in kids and expand their horizons.