Up Close Look at the Play Farm

E has been obsessed with farm animals for quite some time now, and this project has definitely taken time to evolve into what it is now.  It will also probably continue to evolve as she grows. 

Watch the video for a quick tour around the farm:

A few things I would like to note:  

The items shown below are from a mixture of places and brands.  The animals and structures are definitely not to scale! It bothers me a little, but E has so much fun playing with this set up, and the cost effectiveness (ie. most of this was thrifted, gifted, or on sale) of all the pieces being different has outweighed any concerns that I have.

The animals come from a mixture of Safari Toob animals, diorama animals from Hobby Lobby, and PlayMobil (I think the collection was Country Farm Life?)

Here is the over view shot, it's everything that is used for the farm play set.  It is set under a large green felt piece that I purchased from Joann Fabrics.

The main structure of the farm is the barn.  I had purchased this for E for her first Christmas, although now  I wish I would have sprung for the wooden Terra barn at Target but oh well!  It's a Fisher Price barn for those interested.  

Here is a picture of the garden.  The plastic garden with sunflowers is a PlayMobil toy.  Some of the vegetables and fruit (the strawberries, carrot, peppers, etc.) are buttons that I purchased from Joann Fabrics.  The garden is on a mat of brown felt.  I haven't sewn or glued any pieces down as I like that if offers open play for E.  She doesn't put things in her mouth, so I'm not really worried about them being a choking hazard, but if that's a concern for anyone, the buttons would be very easy to sew to the felt.

Here is the horse stable, with various horse keeping supplies.  There is also a black mama cat and baby kitten.

Apple tree with some white flowers growing around the base (the flowers are also buttons from Joann Fabrics).

Pig pen.  The gate is from a Lego Duplos set.

Duck and goose pond cut from a piece of blue felt.  Again, not tacked down as E like to change up the layout of her farm frequently.  Also, the dog and goat are ALWAYS together 😂

And last, the chicken coop with a rooster on top.  

I hope you enjoyed the tour of E's play farm, and I hope it gives you inspiration to create your own! E loves it, and setting it up is probably her favorite part (although, for the purpose of this blog post, I set it up today).  

I would probably like to make this into a Montessori inspired grammar farm one day, but since E isn't reading yet, I haven't gotten around to tackling that project.  For now, it's just a super fun pretend play set.