We are big fans of board games; we love to play together as a family with regular game nights. But there are times when you just want to sit and relax and do something on your own – that goes for children as well as adults. Sitting there staring at the wall or ceiling isn’t very relaxing but playing a good brainteasing single player game can be. We love the SmartGames range of single player logic games; they are hands-on logic challenges based around child-friendly themes with different skill levels that provide lots of fun and encourage problem-solving and critical thinking skills. As we have played some before and enjoyed them we thought we would try another from the range, Smart Farmer.
SmartGames Smart Farmer is a problem-solving logic game with 60 different challenges for a single player aged 4 to adult. It is a challenging game where you have to keep the farm animals apart. And its not as easy as you would think! A puzzling challenge game that you will be playing until the cows come home and its time to hit the hay! (I would like to say I’m sorry for the farm puns but I’m really not).
In the box:
- Game Board with 4 Fixed Fences
- Horses (x2)
- Cows (x2)
- Sheep (x2)
- Pigs (x2)
- Water Troughs (x3)
- Fences (x3)
- Booklet with 60 Challenges and Solutions
There is trouble at the farm! The animals are making a big mess, roaming free and mixing – they need to be separated … they each need to get their own space and their own water to drink. But the farmer has only 3 simple fences to divide his field into separate meadows.
In Smart Farmer, the challenge is to help the farmer place his 3 fences so that the horses, cows, sheep and pigs each get their own spaces and have their own water to drink. And there are 60 different challenges to solve over four difficulty levels: Starter, Junior, Expert and Master. The challenges are suitable for children from 4 years old as well as adult players.
As with other SmartGames we have played, play is centred around the challenge book. This is split into four difficulty levels: starter, junior, expert and master. We would always suggest starting with the starter level as, even if it’s far too easy, it does an excellent job of demonstrating the concept of the game.
To start your Smart Farmer journey, you select your challenge from the book and set the animal pieces on the board as shown in the diagram. All of the animals fit into the diamond shaped holes on the board, so it’s just a case of getting them in the right place on the board.
Then you have to use the fence pieces, not necessarily all of them, to separate the animals so that they are segregated according to type. So, for example, all of the horses have to be separated from the pigs, and the sheep have to be separate again. The fence pieces fit into the cross shaped holes in the board, so can only be situated according to the grid system. It sounds quite easy, but as you move on through the challenge levels, it really isn’t! And as the challenges get move difficult the animals also need their own water.
Overall, Smart Farmer is a lovely game, the farm theme really helps the kids to identify and engage with the logical thinking aspect of the game. Context makes a massive difference to how much kids will want to play games like this. It is a perfect game to help with children’s development and to stimulate cognitive skills such as flexible thinking, problem solving, planning, spatial awareness and concentration! And enjoying yourself whilst doing it.
The quality of the board and pieces are top quality. They are very sturdy and a nice size for children and adults to hold and be able to place on the board easily. The animals have a rubberised finish which helps small hands to grip and handle them.
The game has a very simple concept on the surface, but the critical and logical thinking skills required to be able to think your way through solving the challenges means that the kids have to really concentrate. The look on their faces when they complete a challenge is brilliant and they feel very proud and accomplished when they do.
As adults we think the game is excellent for encouraging children to develop problem solving and critical thinking skills whilst enjoying playing but we have also very much enjoyed playing this game with the kids and by ourselves – you are never too young or too old to give your brain a workout.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £19.99
For more information, visit smarttoysandgames.co.uk. Available to buy from Amazon here.
