I’ve been watching my kids (alright, helping my kids) with a new game they have on their iPods called Hay Day.

The objective of the game is to create a farm and sell to customers so you get coins and stars. The stars move you up a level and each level enables you to make more stuff for your customers. It is an intriguing game, and well presented.

What I have found interesting is the difference between my son and daughter. Perhaps it is their age difference but son has picked up very quickly on what happens if he runs out of resources and money and is mad keen to make as much money and move up the levels as quick as he can.

Daughter on the other hand is interested in “getting more animals”.

More than once I’ve had to “save the farm” as daughter has run out of feed and the ingredients to make the feed.

It is a struggle to keep her on track but I think she is making progress. She just has to stop selling at prices that are too low, especially to her brother who has a bit more of a competitive streak.

What is encouraging is that the kids are at least thinking about planning and how they need to think ahead and think of the consequences of their actions or inactions. The bonus is that to them it doesn’t feel like learning. They are actually having fun while learning.

Now if we could just have a farming game that taught them about farming. That too would be interesting.

I better go, apparently someone has run out of soya beans again, meaning the cows are hungry and not making milk in order to do the baking for an order to sell to a customer so a higher level can be achieved.