Busy Farm by Discovery Toys

I've been trying to get out the new Discovery Toys one by one.  When you get a giant box of new toys, it's hard not just to pull them out and play with them all at once.  But I thought I would get more play out of each toy if we played with them individually.  I really want to watch the reaction of my children with each toy so I can write about it here.

On this day, I pulled out two new toys.  One that Peter chose and one that Lachlan chose.  Peter picked out the Busy Farm, and boy was I impressed.

I call this one preschool in a box.

First you can see, it includes, this big bag of farm animals.  There are 6 different kinds of animals and they each come in all of the colors.

Along with the animals, it comes with these awesome cards that are double sided.  They ask you to do all sorts of different things.  Like finish a pattern, find the animal that's different, put the animal, on, in, over or under.  All the things little ones learn in preschool.

 The one above asks, which one is different?  Place a cow on the one that is different.

This one is a pattern for them to finish and the other one here asks where these things come from.  So he set the cow on the glass of milk.

 This one asks you to put a cow in the green triangle and a pig in the brown rectangle.  So they are learning colors and shapes.

 As you can see, he loved it, so we just kept going.  I just kept laying out the cards and he happily played along.

 Until he decided to be a stinker.  I would read the directions and he would choose to do the opposite.  So I decided to beat him at his own game.  I told him, okay, I will do it.  The directions say to put the pig in the rectangle.  I picked up a pig, put him next to the rectangle and threw my hands in the air celebrating.  I did it, I did it!

He looked at me and smiled, no that's next to it.  Then he would pick it up and put it in the rectangle.

You can see him correcting me here.

 Well look at that.  In correcting me, not only did he better learn the concept of in but also next to.

You can see us all playing together.  Even Adam joined in.  He loved being included in the fun and laid there watching them very contently.  It was such a fun family time together, with the television off.

As you can see, Peter gives it a thumbs up..

What I am enjoying most about all the toys we have tried out so far is that they are "kid powered".  This is the goal of all Discovery Toys.  They want the kids to have to do the work, to use their imagination and to learn and grow as they play.  You don't just press a button and let the toy do the work.

This toy, is amazing.  But for the most part, to take advantage of the cards, someone who can read has to play along.  This can be a pro and con.  Of course it is always nice to spend some good quality time with your children, but there are times you need them to play alone.  However, some of the cards they could probably figure out the instructions on their own.  Like the pattern cards or which ones different.  Even the ones that ask you to place an animal next to or to the left of they could play with on their own, they just might not do what the instructions ask.  You could look over their shoulder at what they are doing and ask them where they placed the animal and in that way, they would still be learning.  But they can also just play with the animals.

These little farm animals in and of themselves were captivating for both the boys.  They got out our barn and used them as the baby animals at the farm.  They have played with them for days now.  In fact, they had to go to time out for a bit because they didn't want to share.  So they will come back out again soon.

Lachlan really liked lining them up inside the little box they came in.  He had a hard time figuring out how the box open and closed so he ended up ripping a part of the box.  The box has a nice little handle on it so that it can be stored away as it came.  With a little tape we were able to fix it up.  Hopefully, it will hold up.

There is a similar set to this one but with bugs instead of farm animals.  It's called Busy Bugs .

If you want to buy this or any other Discovery Toys please visit my website here.  Of course I do get some commission on sales, but that doesn't mean I won't be honest.  I just like to do all I can to help support my amazing family.  Thanks so much!