Hearthside Homeschool Reviews...and More

Created by a third generation dairy farmer, Life on the Farm is a fun way to learn a little more about...well...life on a farm! Mid play, one of my children stated, "Wow, it's hard to make money as a dairy farmer." I'm not a farmer, so I'm not sure if that is a realistic picture of farming, but it's certainly something my kids took away from playing this game. Despite discovering that money making is not a quick and simple process, they quite enjoyed the game.

Reminding us all of Monopoly in the way the game board is set up, we were able to understand the instructions quickly and begin play. My seven year old had no problem playing along, making this a good game for the whole family. As we played, we soon discovered that Farm Income cards were not always good and Farm Expense cards were not always bad. This provided a great opportunity to discuss the real life truth in that and really added an extra layer to the game play. Of course, the actual income and expense cards also provided opportunities for discussion- especially the one about paying for your cows to be artificially inseminated!

I was impressed with the game components themselves. The board was sturdy and the entire set professionally done. Having played some great games that were unfortunately cheaply made, I was quite happy with the quality for the price.

While I don't think this will replace our family favorites, I do think it's a good game and would be a fun addition to your unit study on farming or cows or agriculture. As with any game that uses play money and dice, this is also a great way to reinforce math skills. One of my favorite aspects of the game is that it is easy to learn and play. We own many, many games in our house but few that all the kids can play on their own and with multiple ages. That's a huge plus for me. I would suggest playing the short version though, which took us about an hour. An hour of farming was a good amount for this suburban girl!

A multiple award winner, Life on the Farm is available for $25. I've heard rumor that it may be also be available at your local K-Mart but that hasn't yet been confirmed. Next time you're at K-Mart, take a peek and let me know if you find it!