Here’s a proposition: Rather than delight your kid once or twice a year with a big, expensive present that will eventually get put aside, why not surprise them with a small, delightful package once a month? I have two kids, a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old, and they love it when something arrives in the mail that isn’t bills, replacement chargers from Amazon, or Garnet Hill catalogs.

Subscription boxes can be useful supplements for remote learning. They’re also handy to have around the house if you can’t send your sniffly kid to school or to a big indoor birthday party. As a bonus, they’re usually affordable! I tested some of the subscriptions on this list, and I bought others for my kids and their friends. These are our favorites.

Be sure to check out all of our other buying guides for kids, including the Best STEM toys, Best Kids’ Headphones, Best Tablets for Kids, and Best Tech Gifts for Kids.

Updated May 2023: We added the Little Passports Craft Discovery Kit, the Bake Eat Love kit, Raddish Kids, and Cricket magazine, removed older picks, and updated links and pricing.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you’d like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

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