Cute set for the imagination of a 2-3 yr old
April 10, 2015
First, I am a mom to 6 PLUS a grandbaby, so I am a bit of an expert. LOL.. My 24 month old son and 21 month old grandson were the little ones to test out this new farm. Now, I have 3 fisher price farms so I have a few to compare this to. I also am a big fan of fisher price and of course, grew up on fisher price toys. With that being said, I will give you MY thoughts and then what I saw when MY little ones got to play with it.
MY opinion: First the packaging; Too much! Throw this in a basic box and put the animals in a baggie and call it a day. I understand that the marketing of the product is important, but as a parent, it was a pain to get it out! Next, The animals are ADORABLE! This was my favorite! They are nice and chunky for little hands and NO WORRIES on choking! Much cuter than prior sets. They added a cute goat, which is usually not used so that was a big YAY for me! There is no tractor for the farmer and no corn husks to put into the silo, which seems to me to be more beneficial for learning than to put an animal down it.
I did like the noises to the barn, BUT, they are only activated when the front or back door is opened and the noises/song is random. There is no connection between the animals and sounds unless you are playing with your child and show them every animal the sound goes with, and even then, you have to memorize yourself which sound/song comes next. I think if the individual stalls with the corresponding picture of the animal made the noise, that would be more beneficial to the child.
I do love it is compact, MUCH better than past farms and easy to fold up, but the latch doesn't latch very well and I found that carrying it, it opened and the animals fell out. They also fall out of the top since the windows are large. I also felt the silo was eh! The top should turn so the bottom closes and you can store the animals in there and it would also build other skills for your toddler to turn and open it. I feel this set is cute, but requires a lot of imagination play that only older 2-3 yr olds actually have. Any one that says their child sat and played with this for HOURS is not taking this seriously. NO child plays for hours with any toy at this age.
Now, my toddlers' reviews. My 24 month old could not wait to play with it. He was screaming "horse, horse!" I got it out and he grabbed as many animals as he could. My 21 month old grandson was very excited and LOVED the stalls doors and opening them and closing them. My 24 month old played with it for about 15 mins and walked away. He tried out all the stall doors and put one animal down the silo and that was that. My 21 month old grandson played with it a bit longer, put every animal in his mouth, lol, and they didn't touch it the rest of the day. Next day, both boys played with it again, on their own, several times throughout the day. I noticed my 24 month old using more of his imagination, but did get frustrated quickly when he kept opening the stall door for the horse sound and he got several others instead. My 21 month old grandson does not really care about the sounds matching the animal, so he plays much longer. They both LOVE opening the stall doors. This was a huge hit. They like putting the animal through the windows, and that is about all they can do.
With all that said, it is a cute set, but not any better than past farms. I actually like past farms from fisher price better, and I kept both! So with 3 farms, this was my least favorite. It was too upsetting to my 24 month old who could not find the correct HORSE noise when he wanted it. Put the sounds in the stalls of the corresponding animal, make the silo top spin to close the bottom and this would be perfect!
This product review was collected by the manufacturer.