Lovevery Analyst Play Kit Review: Worth It vs Amazon in 2023?!

Wondering if the Lovevery Analyst Play Kit for Months 46, 47, 48 is worth it vs Amazon self curating? In short: Probably not…

You can recreate this play kit for as little as $82 with the cheapest dupes I'm going to walk you through, or as much as $136 with the most expensive ones.

However, I don't think most families will want all the items in this play kit; so be sure to take advantage of the self curating products I recommend instead!

What's inside The Analyst Play Kit from Lovevery? [+ Amazon Alternatives!]

Personal Experience:

This game is so fun and I love the box can be used for other activities too. As a kid one of my favorite things during October was where you put your hand in and had to guess the spooky treat, so this is a great little box to have for future activities too!

How to play:

• Solo: Lay out all the pieces and put all of their matches into the box. Try to feel and guess which one you're touching. PROS: Can play alone. CONS: May feel overwhelming to have a bunch of stuff in a box.
• Two player: One person guesses while the other selects an item to hide, one at a time. PROS: Really deepens focus and discernment skills. CONS: Doesn't encourage independent play and can get very boring for adults fast.

Dupes:

Honestly you can DIY this pretty easily and adapt to your child's interests/level using a cardboard box and some fabric or an old t-shirt and random items from around your house.

If you are not a DIYer, you can get teh What's In The Box Game for about $25 on Walmart or Amazon.

Personal Experience:

My daughter loves this toy and I'd often catch her recreate the pictures in her playroom by herself.

I also love that the peg dolls fit in the car from the Free Spirit play kit and the boats work well with silks for various pretend playscapes.

Dupes:

This toy is truly unique to Lovevery and there's nothing like it currently on the market.

However at the end of the day, this is just a Waldorf spin on Montessori sequencing puzzles. So with that in mind there are there a lot of options that work a similar skill of pattern matching/bringing a 2D image to life with your hands:

• Wooden Matching Game Puzzle
• Magnetic Match Rings (this one is super fun because the magnets provide a STEM lesson)
• Montessori Learning Toys Slide Puzzle
• Coogam Wooden Geoboard

Additionally, there are some similar more imaginative sets, that do not include sequencing cards but you can easily DIY those, which provide a more similar experience as a whole in my opinion:

• Learning Resources All About Me Sorting Neighborhood (this is what I'd personally get because it's more open ended/multi-use like Lovevery's and just DIY 2D sequencing cards)
• Learning Resources Mini Muffin Match

Personal Experience:

We have never used these. I think we will someday, but at 3 years old, I'm just not worried about fractions and we use a scale to bake, not measuring cups so this just hasn't come up in our life yet.

I do have them set aside for when her interest around math concepts piques again and see them as valuable, but it's an item I hope they replace in future iterations as it's easy to dupe.

Dupes:

This set of fraction measuring cups is a great alternative.

Personal Experience:

What I like about this, is that it shows the actual measuring cups from this kit, in the visual recipe making it one of the easiest visual recipes for kids to follow. However, since we didn't use the measuring cups much we didn't benefit from that. My daughter does love these though!

Dupes:

My First Cookbook is 192 pages of visual recipes for kids to master independence in the kitchen. Recipes include after school snacks, family meals, and even holiday recipes!

Personal Experience:

Despite having this puzzle since 3.5 years old, my daughter didn't take much an interest in it until about 46 months – making it very age appropriate. I taught her how to match the inner triangles and do the inner ring first, then do the outer ring and from there she was really able to do this on her own. I like that all the pieces are basically the same size (well two sizes), so it really isolates the attention on the colors and hues.

Dupes:

This puzzle is really great – and I highly encourage purchasing it second hand if you do not get this play kit as there's nothing quite like it.

The most similar dupe I could find is this puzzle which features a similar concept of the wooden color wheel puzzle. With that said, you can find a ton of color gradient jigsaw puzzles, and you can always DIY a puzzle with this printable.

Personal Experience:

My daughter really took an interest in this just before her 4th birthday. It's not something she does a ton, because she prefers freeform lacing than actually making the shapes. But she likes the rainbow thread and I think it's something she'll continue her interest in with time.

Dupes

Nothing exactly like Lovevery's once again which is brilliantly designed for 3 to 4 year olds; but there are a few similar variations:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Lacing Cards: Easiest lacing kit for starters. It provides the sturdiness of Lovevery's, with wide holes, but lacks a realistic feel as you're lacing cardboard, not fabric
• Galt Toys First Sewing Kit: This fun little kit creates functional designs and features wide holes with a large needle like Lovevery's. However it uses a thick fabric for sturdiness, instead of a hoop so it may pose a bigger challenge for young preschoolers compared to Lovevery's.
• CraftLab Kids Embroidery Kit for Beginners: This one is probably the hardest as the designs are very targeted, and kids can technically embroider anywhere on the fabric. However like Lovevery's, you get the sturdy hoop and large needles.

Personal Experience:

I love that this book integrates the items from this play kit, really bringing things to life. However my daughter just never got really into it.

I think the baking items in this play kit just came a little too late. As we already have our way of doing things, so it felt like starting something new that just never integrated into our family.

Dupes

While I couldn't find any montessori aligned fraction books featuring real kids, there are some great alternatives to consider:

• A Fraction's Goal ― Parts of a Whole (Math Is CATegorical ®) – A FANTASTIC introductory book on fractions that pairs well thought out language with visuals and also includes some exercises at the end
• Whole-y Cow! Fractions are Fun – an adorable book about fractions that 3 and 4 year olds will surely love reading over and over; the only thing I don't love for this age range: this book asks a lot of questions in the text, parents can easily fill this in, but the idea of “quizzing” a toddler on content they are just learning is something I'm personally not a fan of/isn't montessori aligned
• Bake Infinite Pie with X + Y – this book isn't a fractions book per se, but is a beautiful story book introducing a slew of big math concepts and can make a great addition to a home library for 4 to 5 year olds

The Analyst Play Kit Book Bundle

In case you missed it, Lovevery launched “book bundle” add ons for subscribers. For $18 you can add ‘You Can Do It' and ‘The Sleepover' to your play kit with a subscription. ‘You Can Do It' is actually two stories in one!

$9 per book is a great price in my opinion and a no brainer to addon, but watch the read throughs below to decide if it's right for your family!

Lovevery Book Bundle Read Alongs

How much does Lovevery's Analyst Play Kit Cost?

Lovevery's Analyst Play Kit costs $120, but they do offer prepaid bundle options for up to a 10% discount here.

Is Lovevery Analyst Play Kit Worth It?

This play kit from Lovevery is truly a personal preference…

Financially:

Financially speaking, you could recreate this play kit for as little as ~$80 which does come in less than the Lovevery price tag. However if you were to purchase all of the most expensive dupe options you're looking at spending ~$135, which is about $15 more than the cost of this play kit from Lovevery.

Qualitatively:

While the puzzle and boats are a bit harder to replicate from this play kit – and we REALLY love them – I personally think this play kit is a “skip” for most families being financially conservative.

The items in this play kit are great, and we do use the majority of them. However many can be DIY'ed or dupes can be purchased for less.

Additionally, while I love the focus on practical life skills, we didn't end up integrating Lovevery's baking items into our lives as we've been cooking together for 2 years and have our flow already in place.

It boils down to the book bundle IMO…

Since the price/self curation kind of cancel each other out, I think it really comes down to the book bundle. We love both of the books as they focus on helping your child “grow up” and take healthy risks. For that reason, this play kit may make sense for some families.

Shop “The Analyst” Play Kit From Lovevery here!