Toca Life: Farm

As usual with this series, imaginations and open-ended play reign as kids explore and take control of their own play experience, but the most learning potential comes with adult involvement. Toca Life: Farm distinguishes itself a bit from the others in that there's a bit more to it than kids moving things around and telling stories. That is, objects transform and things happen on-screen as a direct result of what kids do. Plant a seed, water it, and watch crops grown. Or put milk and strawberries into a machine, set it to strawberry milk, and watch the machine spit out your product to take to the store shelves. In this way, kids have plenty of space for free play and pretend worlds, but they also see their actions having an impact on what happens on the screen, which may help engage kids more. The record function, which allows kids to document and share their silly stories, also adds a special touch. Though the question still remains whether this digital setting can offer kids the flexibility for imagination and creativity they get when engaging in pretend play offscreen, Toca Life: Farm could be close to as good as it gets for screen-based pretend play.