Farm to Market Game Review
Farm to Market Game is a brilliant little gem, and likely it’s not one you’ve heard of. It’s important that we humans know where our food comes from, and what challenges has to be overcome to get the food to the table. Farm to Market does exactly that.
Age: 6+
Reading: Yes
Players: 2-4
Play time: 20-30 minutes
Type of Game: Spin & Move
Difficulty: Easy
Meg’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Kid’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
How to Play Farm to Market (the basics)
Playing the role of farmer, you’ll work your way through the plowing, planting, & harvesting seasons, with the goal of selling your crop at market. As the seasons progress, you’ll have to negotiate insect infestation, broken legs, and more of the challenges farmers face every day.
Ease: Farm to Market is an easy-to-learn game, taking just minutes to learn. The directions are unfamiliarly word, but like I said, you’ll get it within minutes.
Start: Players begin by placing their token choice on the start space.
Spin: Spin the spinner in turn. The spinner will land on one of three spaces, complete the appropriate action.
Number: move that amount of spaces
Farm: Pick a farm card. Farm cards will present the farmer with either a positive or negative event. One could ruin a field, another could double the harvest.
Help: Pick a help card. The help card is a request from a neighbor, you can choose whether to help him or not. Regardless of which answer is picked, all players will face the same consequences.&
Gameschooling with Farm to Market Game
Agriculture / Economics
According to the World Wildlife Federation, agriculture is the #1 industry worldwide, but it isn’t an industry for the faint of heart by any means. Farmers fight everyday to ensure that our food supply (& exports) doesn’t dwindle. You child will recreate some of the disasters & wins of the agricultural community, from locust swarms, to fallow fields to an over-productive harvest. Your crop needs to make it to keep the economy flowing.
Game Mechanics / Slight Competition / Empathy
Farm to Market Game also serves as an introduction to more complicated game mechanics. Your child will be practicing navigating a somewhat tricky board (the corner spaces don’t look like spaces), flipping over the appropriate cards, and deciding if players should move backward or forward.
This game is primarily competitive, but it’s very gentle and can open conversations about helping one another.
Games Like Farm to Market
Meg Grooms (she/her) is a decades-long secular homeschooler, mother of many, writer, Florida ex-pat, and all-around swell gal. Meg & her partner have raised their kids all over the USA, finally settling on Southern California. For now, anyhow.
Meg blogs about Gameschooling, Educational Gaming, and the Gaming Community at Homeschool Gameschool. Meg is available for speaking engagements, workshops, and gameschooling classes. If you’re interested in scheduling a workshop, review, ad space, or just saying hi –> Click here. Happy Gameschooling!
