If you are like me I am always looking for ways to get my kids away from using the iPads all the time. But in this day in age the iPad is a place kids just always gravitate to. No matter what you do and no matter the age kids ask for more iPad time. So of course I went in search of games that would get them off of the touch screen and be a least more engaged in the real world with physical pieces and parts. Today I want to share with you a game I tried with my 3 1/2 year old daughter, called Plugo Farm by PlayShifu.
I will share with you my impression of the product, how to set it up, how to play, why I love it, and how to buy. Lets get started.
First Impressions
When the boxed arrived I was already impressed with the quality of the packaging. The pieces and game board were both well made.
When I pulled it from the Amazon package my daughter instantly knew it was something for her to enjoy and couldn’t wait for me to open it.
The kit comes with everything you need to play minus the iPad or Android device you will be using. It included a farm base, 4 animals, 1 tractor that you can hook a harvester and tanker to it, 1 bucket, 1 fodder, 1 manager character, and the foldable gamepad that is magnetic. It also comes with 8 flags that are used to help navigate the farm.
My overall first impression was that there is a lot of value in this product. My daughters first impression was to touch each and every piece and get super excited about the animals.
How to set up
Set up is super easy. The hardest part is keeping your child calm as you set up account.
- First you need to set up space, just unfold the Gamepad and place your device in the slot and place the farm base on the magnetic play area.
- Download the plugo app and select the farm game. You can play without setting up account which is what I did first time daughter played because she was very impatient. However then when I set up account later she had to start all over with activities. So I recommend setting up the account right away. It also gives you option to pick child age so activities can be geared toward their age.
- Once you have all that in place and you have selected farm game you will need to wait a minute as the game calibrates.
**Note= If the whole farm base is not visible by camera in your device it will not work. I ended up calling PlayShifu on a late Friday night trying to get it to work and they were amazing helped me troubleshoot my issue and just needed to move iPad over so whole base was in camera. - Once you are in its time to have some fun and play the game.
How to Play
Once you enter the farm the farmer will direct your child to each area of the farm to help the different animals and running a market where you help customers with purchasing market items.
The more you play different areas of the farm will open up and different challenges will become available. My daughter enjoyed being able to feed the animals, clean the animals, and give the animals water. She got super excited when little ! all over page.
My daughter learned how to balance her time between taking care of animals, caring for farm plants and making sure customers stay happy. It was fun to watch her go “Oh no the cow is hungry” as she goes to feed him a customer showed up at market she moved to market before finishing feeding cow. Over time she realized she had to finish one thing before moving to something else. It was a great problem solving activity for her.
Why I love it
These are a few of my reasons I recommend trying the Plugo Farm Game
- This is my first game I have purchased from PlayShifu, but I love the fact that most of the games all use the same game base, which means you can buy the starter kit once and then buy the other accessories for other games at a much lower price.
- For a simple game it is great for multiple ages. I have a son who is 6 and you can change the challenge level and he has enjoyed playing with this game as well.
- The story line is super cute, and doesn’t require your child to be able to read. After a little guidance I was able to walk away from the table and my 3 1/2 year old was able to play on her own with no trouble. Even the signs that have words on it also have images of the areas on the farm so she quickly connected the bee, cow, chicken etc with the areas of map she was going to visit.
- This is compatible with many different devices. We have iPads, iphones, Samsug devices and a Kindle fire so its nice we can use it on a number of different devices. Review the product before buying to make sure your version of device will work with game.
How to Buy
There are a few ways you can purchase the kit.
First you can go to www.playshifu.com and receive a 35% discount on any order over $85 when you use my coupon code JODI35.
OR
Purchase from Amazon