Who says life on the farm is mundane? It certainly isn't the case in Toca Life: Farm. The new digital playset from Toca Boca proves that there are lots of stories and excitement to be had whether you're harvesting crops, cleaning up the barn, or even going out for groceries.
FUN ON THE FARM
Toca Life: Farm is the newest addition to the popular Toca Life series, digital toys that let kids create and record their own stories using fun characters, items, and locations. As suggested by the name, the setting is a farm. In the app, kids discover what rural living is like.
The app offers five unique locations to explore: the barn, house, field, store, and storage. Each location is quite large, and kids can drag left or right to expand the scene. They can also interact with various items: flower pots, milk bottles, fruits and vegetables, clothes, musical instruments, beds, and many others. At the field, for example, they can dig a hole in the ground using a shovel. They can plant a tomato seed in that hole, then water it until it sprouts into a grown tomato plant.
Some items can also be combined together: bread can be stacked with various ingredients to make a sandwich, produce can be placed inside baskets, baskets can be attached to the tractor.
At the store, there is a food machine that allows kids to combine raw ingredients to create new products. For example, they can turn a pumpkin into pumpkin pie, strawberry and milk into strawberry milk, jam and bread into a donut. There are plenty of combinations to experiment with and discover.
The app also includes 29 characters that include boys and girls, kids and adults, and even aliens. Kids can add characters to a scene and move them around, remove them, give them items to use and food to eat, and also dress them in various costumes. Some scenes also include farm animals like cows, pigs, and chickens.
The purpose of the app is to facilitate storytelling and play. Should kids feel like sharing their stories with family and friends, they can use the recording tool to create their own movies. The tool is very simple to use: after pressing the button to start recording, just speak into the microphone while moving the characters or items around.
The app supports multitouch, so two or more persons can animate the characters at the same time. Each movie can be up to two minutes long, and can be saved to the Camera Roll if desired.
PARENTS NEED TO KNOW.
Like other Toca Life apps, Toca Life: Farm includes a section called Life Weekly. It offers tips, videos, and other free goodies—curated by Toca Boca—that give you insights into the world of Toca Life. You can access this feature by tapping the lightbulb icon on the top right corner of the main screen. Note that you need an Internet connection to view the contents.
Toca Life is safe for kids. It has no third-party adverts and no in-app purchases. You can customize what elements are allowed in the app, from the device's Settings menu. For example, you can turn off the video recording feature, Toca News, and music. You can also reset the app's content with every app start.
THINGS I LIKE.
All kids want is to have fun, and Toca Life: Farm is a fantastic playset that facilitates just that. Loaded with neat little surprises, this easy-to-use app is guaranteed to get the little ones oohing and aahing. It has no rules and no time limit, so kids can play anyway they want and shape their own experience.
The app promotes inclusion, diversity, and collaboration. The characters are diverse in terms of race, gender, and age. There is even a wheelchair in every scene that a character can be put in. The app supports multitouch, so more than one child can play together on the same device.
Even though the app focuses heavily on playtime, it also holds some educational value. As kids explore the virtual farm, they can discover, among others, how to plant crops and how to care for farm animals. This aspect of the app makes it even more valuable, and puts it above its competitors.
CONCLUSION.
Toca Life: Farm is an outstanding digital playset that lets kids explore life on the farm with 29 diverse characters, 5 colorful scenes, and hundreds of interactive items. Free from rules and time limit, they can play anyway they want. An easy-to-use recording tool lets them create their own stories to share with family and friends. Highly recommended for ages 6 and up.