When playing with my nephews I built up the farm as a story. One of the first questions I had when we set up our Midwest Mile farm rug was where are we farming. Due to the crops we were farming I confidently said "In Kansas of course!" Which was quickly followed by a "Why?" So I created a backstory.
"Well originally we farmed in Montana and due to a hurricane (bear with me it's a story) we had to move to a new place to start over."
This silly antidote sufficed and it also helped us come up with our farm name, Green Hurricane Farms. I then created a mission.
Since we were restarting our farm we needed to raise good crops to market and pay for the new farmland. So we assigned roles to each kid playing. One person took care of land operations, another decided which equipment to use and when, and the third was in control of fixing equipment if it "broke down" or needed servicing.
Going through multiple "years" (a few hours) on the farm we were finally able to pay back the cost of the new farmland and the playtime was over for that day.
Telling or creating a story with your kids keeps everyone engaged in the processes you are teaching and helps kids better remember what they learned.
As cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner suggests "we are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it has been wrapped in a story. Why? Because stories are memorable.”
Rug Root Acres encourages you to give this a try next time your kids want to play "farm".