Make Your Own Farm
One of the great things about birthdays is that you get awesome new toys to play with! And BookBairn just loves this illustrated Make Your Own Farm by Anna Kovecses. I has been sent this a little while ago by the publishers and had stashed it away for her birthday as I knew she would love it and I was right.
We spent one morning this week, whilst The Wee Page Turner napped, popping out all of the pieces and sliding them together to make them stand up. BookBairn loved pushing the pieces free of their cardboard surrounds but found putting them together a bit tricky so I helped her turn the fantastic 2D flatpieces into spectacular little 3D sheep, cows, farmhouse, tractor and more.
One of the things that we discovered too is that the box folds flat to create a floorpiece for the farm to be set up on allowing the ducks to have a pond, the farmhouse to have a path leading through the garden and the chickens could have a coop.
BookBairn then spent, I kid you not, nearly an hour playing with the pieces. I pottered around the kitchen whilst she played with the farm set on the kitchen table. I had a cup of tea whilst I could hear the sounds of the farm animals down on her farm. The only reason we stopped was because her little brother woke up!
And we have left it set up on the table for the time being and she goes back to play with it again and again. She happily played away with her Papa over the weekend down on the farm. And it's still on the table.
That's the only downside to the farm for us. It is set up and the pieces won't fit back into the box without dismantling them. An older child could take them apart and build them up again easily and thus no mess but for BookBairn that would require me to do it every time. So we are going to leave the farm out for a week or so and then pop it away in the box to get back out at a later date. It does mean this would be a great toy to take on holiday or travel with due to it's portable size.
The illustrations are lovely and I love the use of slightly off colours and shades (the bull has a purplish tint and some of the sheep are definitely a pinkish wool) making them a little more interesting. The characters have neutral faces allowing children to project their emotions as they play and have the sweetest little outfits. The attention to detail is exquisite. Perhaps the best part is the tractor with removable trailer. This is the bit that BookBairn plays with most. She changes the driver, loads up different animals on to the trailer and moves it around the farm. Lots and lots of fun.
This is a gift that will keep on giving as BookBairn gets older - the pieces seem quite durable (although if your child plays roughly it's probably not one for them and better stick with plastic or wooden farms) so we hope to get lots of play. As BookBairn gets older her imaginative play is more interesting and with lovely toys like this the possibilities are endless.
We love some of the illustrated toys that we have - beautiful stacking cubes, matching pairs card games and some lovely Russian nesting dolls. They are like playable artwork!
Happy playing,
Mummy and BookBairn xx
It’s really lovely and BookBairn loves to spot tractors and farm animals round about where she lives so really lots to talk about and learning to be had!
ReplyDeleteShe certainly is very lucky to be able to spot them so easily! We are hoping to visit a friend's farm next week!
DeleteBookBairn could’ve wait to show me her farm and what a lot of fun we had playing with it. What surprised me most was how extensive it was. Is there any more in a series?
ReplyDeleteNot that I am aware of but if they bring out more we will definitely want to get them!
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