A delightful little place for the kids (and us big kids!)
Today we headed off to Boston Park Farm in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. It was a steal of a deal. For myself, partner and my daughter, the price was £25. Compared to many other similar places I priced up, this was one of only a few that did not require us to remortgage the house to afford it!
The social media page promised a day of easter themed activities, along with visiting the animals on the farm and brilliant play equipment for the children.
It was also dog friendly, which is definitley not the case for most farms. It was brilliant to be able to bring our little Yorkshire Terrier with us.
As we arrived, the first thing we were greeted with was a playground for the children. Personally, I am not fond of playgrounds being the first thing that my child sees when we go somewhere. She tends to not want to do anything else, and it takes skills that I don’t possess to be able to convince her to see the rest of the attraction. So today I had to bribe her with an ice cream to move away from the climbing frame. She had been on there for forty minutes at this point, and I was becoming restless, therefore needs must 🙂
Just around the corner from here was a tractor track, and I did think this was pretty cool. My daughter did too. She sprinted towards it and found one of the largest tractors available, and set about doing laps of the track. As more children joined, it became like a game of bumping cars, with each child trying to outdo the other. It was fun to watch their creative methods play out to achieve this!
Up next were the animals, the part I had been looking forward to!
First, we went to see the Alpaca’s. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed feeding them, and fund it hysterical that they all poked their heads through the bars, yearning for more.
Look how cute this little guy is!
Next we went to see the cows. It was the first time Daisy the dog had seen a cow, and she was bewildered. She kept trying to jump up to them to play, and the cows were pushing their heads through the bars. I think they were trying to work out why she kept barkinmmg at them!
Every time Daisy moved, the cows would follow her. It was the cutest game of chase I have ever seen! (If you head over to my TikTok account, you will be able to see the video of this taking place, but buckle up, it’s a very endearing video that will just make your day instantly brighter!
In the next section were the chicks, not long since born. I really appreciated how educational this segment of the experience was. It was perfect for my curious daughter, who was able to see the hatching process as a whole. I was slightly jealous of the chicks in their heated cages. It had started to get bitterly cold in the wind. The bright sunshine had looked so inviting before we set off, and I had felt relieved to not have to take my big ugly coat. Admit it, we all have a big ugly coat. Mine makes me look like a sack of potatoes, but it’s so warm and cosy.
Here are the chicks. We had a good ten minutes watching them and learning about them.
We moved on to see the sheep, however they must have been having a bad day. Not one of them wanted to come over to us, despite me pleading with them! They even turned their backs on us 🙂
Easter Challenge
The main part of the day the Easter challenge. Children had to do certain tasks and tick them off, in order to get a prize at the end. This included completing a colouring task, milking a cow, planting a seed and playing carrot hoopla. It was all very well organised, and offered all children the chance to experience tasks they otherwise probably would not. My daughter loved everything about this, and spent more than 40 minutes just doing the colouring task.
She then moved onto the carrot hoopla, and struggled to get a single hoop onto the cones. When I had a go, I was sure I would get at least one. But I didn’t. It was much harder than it looks!
Up next was the egg hunt in the hay. My daughter found all six eggs in two minutes, and then proceeded to hide them again, and then find them once more. She repeated htis cycle four or five times. At one point she was so excited she accidently hurled one of the eggs near my face. Oh the fun!
Then it was on to milking the cow. It was something my daughter was not looking forward to, and ironically, the queue for this challenge was non existent!. I think she was grossed out seeing the way that milk is farmed, and she even declared she would never drink milk again! (She soon forgot this on the way home, when she asked for a McDonald’s milkshake!)
The last part of this challenge was to plant some seeds to take home. My daughter loved being able to fill the pot with compost, and being able to decide how many seeds to plant.
Then, to finish off the day, we headed to the play barn.
The play barn houses a bouncy castle, a welcome opportunity for parents to sit for a moment whilst the children go burn off the last of their energy. It was a bt smelly in here, but it is situated next door to the animals, so it was to be expected. We were lucky, the play barn was empty when we got there and she had the whole bouncy castle to herself!
My daughter must have shouted ‘Mummy, watch this!’ a million times. Each time she would show us a roly poly, handstand or other questionable moves. She loved it, and we loved watching her have fun. For the younger children, they had play kitchens and toy trains at the other end of the room.
Overall, this is a great day out to provide learning opportnities for the children and for them to get hands on in the challenges.
For me though, the best thing about Boston Park farm is that dogs are allowed!
Cheerio
E x
Diary of a Working Mum 
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