Parents' Guide to Little Farm Life

This farm's open-ended format is just right for letting kids freely explore and experiment, though it could benefit from a more thoughtful design. Young kids can be as silly as they want with a decent number of areas to explore and items to manipulate. Put the pig in the mud puddle, and then wash it off. Feed the animals fruit, milk cartons, acorns, and pine cones, and watch their reactions. Put food in the freezer, on the grill, or in the pot of hot water and see what happens. Or, just move the animals around and tell a story. Though it's certainly fun to be silly, it would be nice to see some more logic in the activity centers. For example, a pear in the freezer turns into ice cubes, a pinecone in boiling water turns into a jar of jam, and wool in a "wool machine" turns into plastic sunglasses. There are plenty of ways to be silly with transformations that still follow some sort of realism. There's so much to learn about how farms support food and goods production, and this format could be a great way to introduce some concepts to young kids. As is, Little Farm Life is a fun virtual space for free play that doesn't take advantage of what a screen-based experience can offer.