The Little Farm! Review
The Little Farm! is a nice interactive app for babies and toddlers with a bright and colorful look to it. Two sections are included: flashcards and a farm tour.
The Flashcard section is exactly what one might expect, with flashcards of animals and other objects that one may find on the farm. The word in question is also printed on the screen next to these flashcards and is narrated by a child. The corresponding sound of the flashcard can be heard as well, when applicable. To hear this animal’s or object's sound again, tap the flashcard, it would be also be nice if the text word could be tapped to heard again. This section has a lovely blue sky and red barn in the distance as the background for these flashcards which is nice to look at, and pleasant upbeat music is included as well.
Recently, a menu button has been added to the flash cards section allowing one to scroll through and choose a specific card, a nice choice, but I would also like to see a home button added in both of these sections bringing the player back to the main menu title page making it easier to choose the other activity.
The second section, Farm Tour, contains simple and cute farm interactions as one tours this farm landscape. Tap on an egg to help it hatch, feed a rabbit carrots or tap an apple to look for hidden worms, or have apples fall from trees. The section is nice for babies and toddlers who are new to exploring on the iPhone, but there are signs included in this app meant to help gameplay along that are not narrated, so pre-readers will be without these hints that help guide players though the interactions. Sometimes this is not a big issue as it is pretty intuitive how one may figure out that touching the tractor moves it across the page, or how to feed a rabbit carrots, and it is nice that flashing bulls eyes are added to the areas of interactivity. One of these interactions, however, is less obvious and young children may be at a loss as to what to do without additional info. Because of this, I would like it if this information was read out loud when tapped by the player.
This app is a nice activity with nice and colorful graphics. This would be a nice first farm app for babies and toddlers, with the help of a adult.