Little Farmers: Exploring the Wonders of Farm Life Through Play
A picture of a mat with the words ‘we went to the farm!’ on it. With laminated images of farm animals, farm yard books and wooden blocks.
This month was so exciting—my baby’s first real trip to the farm where they could see and interact with animals up close! 🐑🐄🐖 While they had been to a farm before for pumpkin picking and meeting Father Christmas when they where just a tiny baby, this was the first time they could really take it all in. The sights, the sounds, the smells—it was a sensory extravaganza!
Before the big farm day, I just had to put together some fun activities to get us all hyped for the trip (honestly, it was probably more for us adults than the baby!)
First version of farm printable.
See finished printable here.
First, I created a printable that you can grab for free! 🖨️ It’s perfect for brainstorming activities and has loads of fun ideas. If you want even more inspiration, there’s a paid version with extra goodies. I also shared the activities with my lovely friends at our mothers' coffee morning. ☕👩👩👧👦 It was so heartwarming to see everyone getting excited—their enthusiasm made my own preparations even more fun!
Next, I dove into our stash of books 📚 and swapped out our current reading space with ones about farms and farm animals. Now, they were easy to grab whenever my partner or I wanted to snuggle up with our little one for storytime. Oh, and because our baby is bilingual (learning both mine and my partners languages), I brushed up on animal names in both languages. Multitasking mom win!
Then, I got crafty with some laminated cartoon images of farm animals. Looking back, I wish I’d used real animal photos (stay tuned for a future blog post about why!), but these still did the trick. We had so much fun! We hid them in egg cartons, built little farms out of blocks, and even let them “swim” in our baby’s pool during a heatwave. One of the biggest hits was “pigs in mud”—laminated pigs in brown water sealed in a ziplock bag (until it burst, naturally). Messy fun is the best fun, right? 😅
And, of course, we sang our hearts out! 🎶 “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” and “Dingle Dangle Scarecrow” became the soundtrack of our week, giving our little one’s language development a big boost.
Then, the big day arrived… Farm day! 🐾🚜
Little one seeing an ostrich for the first time! I did not realise how big they are!
It was my first time visiting a farm in Belgium too, and wow—what a difference! 😲 In England, petting farms usually have an entry fee, and you often pay extra for animal feed. Here, the farm was free (amazing!) but didn’t provide feed. It was so clean and well-kept, with areas where you could get up close and personal with some tame animals.
We visited an ostrich farm and saw ostriches, horses, pigs, peacocks, and… drumroll, please… my baby’s absolute favourite: a big, friendly, pregnant goat! 🐐🤰 She was so sweet and happy to be stroked. My little one was totally captivated. The whole experience was such a sensory delight with all the sights, sounds, textures, and yes, the farm smells!
My version of the farm feeding activity.
To wrap up our farm fun, I made a DIY farm feeding activity using a big cardboard box from IKEA (perks of moving house recently! 📦). I drew animal faces on the box and created little feed options for each. If this sounds like too much work, don’t worry—I’ve made a printable version available for you to enjoy.
I have also created a bundle of all of our farmyard printables, sensory plans, activities and vocabulary lists which you can find here!
So, what’s next on our adventure list? 🌈 I’ve just started planning some colourful Pride activities 🏳️🌈 and wrapping up our beach-themed fun for our first trip to the seaside. 🏖️🐚 Stay tuned for more adventures! 🚀✨
