I hope I’m not the only parent who sometimes finds role play a little exhausting…particularly when it’s all that your little one wants to do! It’s lovely to see and of course role play is great for encouraging creativity and storytelling, but when you’re required to act out the parts of the ugly sisters, prince charming and the fairy godmother simultaneously, after a hard day’s work, it can be a bit draining!

So you can imagine my delight when we were sent the new game ‘On the Farm’ by Orchard Toys, which is not only a lovely giant jigsaw, but once complete, transforms into a role play scene which Little I seems to be happy to play with independently!

The puzzle is comprised of 14 large pieces, which I thought would be a cinch for Little I, but it’s actually a bit more of a challenge to put together than you’d think. Once the puzzle is finished it becomes a large farm playmat, and the 12 stand-up characters that it comes with can be used for imaginative play.

While we have plenty of puzzles in the house, which Little I has always enjoyed, we don’t have anything quite like ‘On the Farm’. The thing that I so often love about Orchard Toys is that they are very often multi-purposed, offering different dimensions on which the games can be played. If you wanted to take things one step further with this puzzle, you can also connect it to the Orchard Toys Giant Road Jigsaw, using the included link pieces.

Little I has also discovered that she can involve some of her other toys in the farm role play. She’s introduced some small cars and tractors, and random plastic little people that all small people seem to have lurking about in their toy box. She likes to pretend it’s her farm, which people can come to visit or camp on. It’s been lovely watching her act out various entertaining scenarios.

‘On the Farm’s’ RRP is £13.95. It’s a lovely, good quality jigsaw and game which I’d definitely recommend for some rainy day fun.