recommendations for a nice, sturdy farm for 2yr old please

[dylsmimi]

Hi
trying to think of presents for ds2. His birthday is also in the winter and being the second we seem to have lots of toys already
however i think he would really enjoy a toy farm.
any recommendations or ones to avoid?
i don't want to spend more than £50 if possible but other family members can always add to it with animals, people, etc
thanks in advance

We're getting dd Britains farm stuff. 2 is probably not the recommended or target age range, to be fair, but I feel a thing of beauty is a joy forever - it will last her!
For a toddler-specific one, people say the Happyland one is good (we never had it). And I think Ikea do a soft one, which again is meant to be good.

I've Shleich animals in an ELC wooden farm. I bought some green felt for a field and some brown felt for mud for the pigs and i found a scrap of blue velvet for a pond. My dd (8) is playing with it right now.

www.elc.co.uk/Brambledale-Farm/130257,default,pd.html#q=farm

This is the one although ours is a much older one.

This one is what they have at DD's nursery. It's more play-friendy than the Tidlo one we have at home.

I'm a big melissa and doug fan, and DC's had this farm, it was fantastic

here

My son turned two on 25th September. I bought him the Brambledale farm (after much research!!!!!) (linked above)

We have the Shleich animals. However, I have spent my morning glue-ing it back together, it's not very sturdy. The doors on the barn don't close and this is extremely frustrating for my LO when it is time for the cows to go to sleep..

Would have gone for a different one if i could!!!

WE have the Tidlo one, which has the same animals and people as AndHarry's set, but the buildings are different. The had it at 2yo, although the animals are hard wood so it's carefully supervised play, and some of the fencing etc can be a bit fiddly. It will last well though and the dolls interchange with lots of other sets.

Lidl are getting one in on Monday that looks gorgeous £29.99 I think

www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=18112

I'm sorry idiot know how to do a clickable link

My boys had the Playmobil 123 farm and they loved it - we also got a wooden "farm in a bag" thing which was good but not robust enough for toddlers.

www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2595489.htm?CMPID=GS001&_$ja=cgid:18074225245|tsid:59156|cid:189934165|lid:98863321765|nw:g|crid:58889215645|rnd:18134993023520265328|dvc:c|adp:1o3|bku:1

I am also looking for a farm for 2.5yrs DD

Quite like the look of the bigjigs one on amazon. The gltc one looks nice but doesn't come with animals so extra cost!

Thanks everyone!
lots of ideas and help. I love the idea of fabric as fields, ponds etc so will use that with whatever building we go for!
hadn't thought of playmobil (not something we had as children so i forget!)

I've got the fisher price little people farm for DS2, along with the extra vegetable patch bit. Looks fairly sturdy, which is a good thing since he's a right hooligan!

We never had Playmobil either, the farm was a brilliant Christmas present from SIL and BIL. Their children are a lot older than ours so they were very experienced toy buyers. They bought some wonderful much appreciated gifts for our two boys (only a year in age apart). They are 13 and 14 now and I still come across the odd piece from that set when clearing out cupboards - everything fits inside and closes up into a box shape - at least it did 10 years ago :) it looks pretty much the same as i remember though.

DS1 lurrrved the hay bale lift so much and would literately spend hours lifting stuff up and down on it - when he realised that the animals fit on it too he nearly wet himself in delight. :o

What age would you day the 123 farm goes up to, age 3 as title suggests or bit older?

My two were certainly happy playing with it at well older than 3 although I have to say other things were added - They would build train track round it and added in a wooden farm and later on DS1 would use the building as a car park and then added lego structures and would basically make it part of their "world", but I would say that they were very "toy" playing children and would get lost in that kind of stuff for hours and hours - I don't think all children are like that as far as i can tell. I would say they were still using it to some extent at about 5 and 6 or maybe even older. I'm trying to remember what age they were when they got it and they were either 2 and a half and 1 and a half or it would be the following year. They certainly weren't any younger as the previous year we were in a different house.

You'd probably get half your money back if you wanted to re-sell.

we moved again when they were almost 4 and 3 and I remember it set up a lot in our "new" house.

Ohhh little people too. We have the bus and the plane!
gltc one is lovely. Think we will rope in grandparents /aunties to help fill up the farm with animals/people!
decisions decisions!!

Can I ask about the gltc one - does it pack up smaller?

I like that the elc one all the smaller buildings pack into the big building for storage!

This is quite useful

www.juniorfarmer.co.uk/info/Top_10_toy_farm_sets_for_sale_in_UK