An Honest Review of Raddish Kids
I was delighted and immediately said YES! when Raddish kids approached me about testing out one of their monthly subscription boxes. I’d only heard good things about them around the web and was curious to see what they offered.
To stick to my 100% transparency rule, I only recommend products that I have used myself. My tween and teen boys are tough critics – which in all fairness, they’ve inherited from their mother.
So, the arrival of our Raddish Kids box was full of great anticipation.
A few things to know about my family:
If you have been following us for any length of time, you’ll know my kids have been doing more and more to help in the kitchen. At 12 and 14, I want my kids to gain some skills to make them more independent “chefs”.
We loved taking online cooking classes last Spring (Thanks Katie Kimball!!) and since then, I have been prioritizing cultivating my kids’ kitchen and cooking skills.
My family also follows an ADHD Diet, so I was curious if we could participate in all the activities and still follow our pretty strict diet.
I was filled with high hopes and tough standards!
Would Raddish Kids cooking subscription box be a perfect fit? Let’s see!
Don’t miss the discount code at the end of this article.
What is Raddish Kids?
Raddish Kids is a monthly subscription service that delivers a box to your door filled with activities centered around cooking. Founder Samantha Barnes wanted to harness the power of cooking to unite families and grow confident kids who eat wholesome food.
I just love that the company donated 50,000 cooking kits to families in need at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020.
Raddish Kids was started by a mama on a mission and that is definitely something I love to get behind!
What is included in a monthly box?
Each monthly box follows a theme (Ours was “Snowed Inn”) and comes with fun tools and all the instructions you need to prepare two or three full meals for your family.
Here’s what you’ll enjoy with each box:
- At least one, high-quality kitchen tool to be used with the included recipes. We got two, winter themed, silicone pancake molds.
- Recipe cards for three dishes with a shopping list and full pictorial directions. These are printed on high quality, laminated cards to resist messes and stand up to full on kid use. (Ours spent a few days in my black hole of a purse, waiting to go shopping, and came out completely unscathed.)
- Conversation cards to elicit fun talks with your family.
- One collectable patch for your apron
- A ton of online bonuses including a soundtrack that my teens really liked, recipe modifications for many different diets, including gluten free and dairy free(like us!), videos, lesson plans, and more!
Raddish Kids and My Family:
I can say many good things about the benefits of Raddish Kids for my family, even after our first box. Here are the biggest reasons why we really enjoyed our first box:
Cooking gets my kids off screens
With the whole remote learning thing and a pandemic going on, my kids have been spending way too much time on a screen.
Can you relate?
Oh, and screens can be a BIG trigger for my kids.
I love that cooking is an activity we can do together without any device! The Raddish Kids cooking activities are sure to create even more interest around helping out in the kitchen for my kids.
Related: ADHD and Screens: Helping Your Kids Find a Balance
The recipes fit our ADHD diet
We eat a clean, gluten free, dairy free, low sugar, ADHD diet about 97% of the time and each recipe from Raddish Kids has all the variations to meet our needs.
It’s important that my kids learn to cook things that we can eat. AND cooking food themselves makes my kids more apt to eat it!
I even modified the cookies a bit further on my own, cutting out the powdered sugar and adding some cacao and chia seeds (I always have to sneak in those ADHD super foods!)
Related: ADHD Diet on a Budget
My kids are building real world skills
The list of real world skills my kids are continuing to build with our box is huge!
The laminated recipe cards have even helped my kids grocery shop with me.
My boys usually hang out by the magazines when we are at the grocery store, but my youngest had the recipe card in hand as we walked and shopped together. He even did a little price comparison and ingredient checking as we chose the ingredients we needed.
Each recipe card focuses on one skill and has tips to help kids master it. Our box included knife skills, cookie baking and flipping pancakes. My kids have already had some practice with these things from our Kids Cook Real Food class. But, it’s always great to have an opportunity for more practice.
Then, of course, there are the more obvious skills my kids are practicing like:
- measuring and using kitchen tools ( a hand blender! and knives!),
- turning on (and off) the oven,
- setting the timer,
- waiting for the cookies to be done!, watching pancakes as they cook, flipping them,…the list goes on.
Also, I love that each recipe card has a specific skill to practice, like flipping pancakes!
It’s time spent building connection
It’s lovely to have a reason to be together and share in the creating of a something yummy to eat.
As life would have it, my boys are not as crazy to be spending time with their mother as they were 5 to 7 years ago (sigh!), but by helping me in the kitchen – even for 10 minutes at a time, we are building memories and spending time together.
We brought a plate of the cookies to an elderly neighbor, who was thrilled to have some social contact and delicious treats.
As a tween and a teen, the buy in for a subscription box like this this is probably not quite what it would be for younger kids.
But hey, everyone has to eat and so, cooking is a great way to keep building our relationship.
Another fun plus in the kit are conversation cards….we put them on the table and actually used them! Its a fun idea to spark meaningful conversation over good food.
Other fun things included in the box:
There are more features in the box that we did not take full advantage of because they are geared towards younger kids.
Each card has lots of fun questions and facts. These are probably geared more towards the 5 to 10 year old set, but we did learn that Japan is the snowiest city!
Also included was an activity to make hot cocoa mix to give to friends and neighbors. It was meant to use as a holiday gift, but we were swamped in December, so we are turning it into a Valentine’s Day gift!!
Raddish Kids has so much more to offer online, including ways to modify recipes to fit any diet – like our ADHD Diet, lesson plans, ideas for Grandparents, and much more!
Is Raddish Kids worth the money?
Depending on your plan, a box runs you from $20 to $24 a month. It may seem like a lot of money for a small box, but let’s really examine it’s benefits.
A monthly box will easily help create a routine of skill building and connection for your family – something the whole family can anticipate and look forward to!
There are so many extra activities and ways to stretch the activities in the box. Just check the recipe cards and the website for loads of activities.
Saving $25.00 a month – to make room in your budget for a monthly box – is easy. Stop buying one convenience food or cut out a few coffee runs. Giving up one meal out will more than cover the cost of the box.
The meals and activities can be done again and again. In just a few months time, you will build up an arsenal of recipes, skills and activities.
In Conclusion…
Raddish Kids monthly subscription box is a super fun way to build skills and make great memories. The materials included are super high quality and can be kept for years afterwards. We love that the recipes include modifications for all sorts of diets, like our ADHD Diet. The recipe cards make things easy to follow for cooks of all ages.
Many of us are stuck inside and looking for things to do to keep our kids active and busy – on something else besides a screen. The recipes and activities are so well thought out and introduce kids to not only new foods, but new ideas and skills, too.
Raddish Kids is a perfect way to take advantage of our time spent inside!!
I think the subscription is ideal for the 5 to 12 age bracket, but even at 12 and 14, my boys enjoyed trying a new recipe and eating the fruits of their efforts!
Check out their website and order your first box!
Raddish Kids is offering two codes for you! Use the code Chef20 for $20 off a 12 month subscription and ATHOME to get $15 off a 6 month subscription.