Family Day: Farms Are Great For Toddlers

Earlier in the week, my husband and I took our 2-year-old daughter, Ava to the farm for the first time. We took her to Quinn Farm in Ile Perrot, QC (Canada) which is about a 30 minute car ride from our house.

Ava like most children loves reading books and singing songs about farm animals. The animal barn was an exciting place because she got to interact with animals she has learned about for the first time.

At Quinn farm, there are chickens, roosters, pigs, goats cows, and horses.Ava was a little stunned at first, but after a couple of minutes she was running around. Her favorite part of the barn was the chickens and roosters. She is absolutely obsessed with them! It makes me laugh because most kids like animals that are considered a little more ‘exciting’.

Besides the chickens, she took a mild interest in the pigs because the female pigs were overrun with piglets! I  loved that she got to see the beautiful relationship all mothers have with their children. One of the mothers had 12 piglets! How is that possible? As a mom, I felt for her! At one point, the piglets started to feed from her and it resembled a little war.

One word of caution, if your toddler or older children touch the farm animals make sure to clean their hands after. Their should be a designated area outside the barn to do this. Animals carry bacteria and bugs that are bodies are not used to. Toddlers and small children always have their hands in their mouth, so it’s even more important to make sure they keep their hands clean.

Quinn Farm also offer “U pick”. Depending on the season you can pick anything from strawberries to pumpkins. We picked blueberries because they’re in season from mid-July to mid-August. It was so much fun looking for berries and Ava had a ball because blueberries are one of her favorite fruits. I showed her how to look for the blueberries and she got the concept fast. The only problem was that she ate more than she picked!

Their are lots of other activities farms offer for children. Quinn farm offers tractor/hay rides on the busier days. Unfortunately, we did not partake in this because we went on an off day. Their is also a play area for children at most farms. Slides, little toddler bikes and more.

We had a lot of fun. A farm day is a must this summer for parents with toddlers.