In Harvest Hill, children run a small farm through a year of changing seasons. Each season, they choose what to plant in each field, watch the weather arrive, then harvest and sell what they grew. Plant everything as one crop and a bad season can hurt the whole farm. Plant a smart mix, and something usually comes through.

The big idea is the foundation of smart investing, taught through three farm habits children can see and feel: spread out so everything is not riding on one choice, protect against risks you cannot fully predict, and reinvest gains so the farm can grow over time. Harvest Hill is the game in this set about growing money when you cannot see the future. That makes it different from Money Garden, which focuses on money growing quietly over time.

What it teaches

Diversification, managing risk you cannot control, using protection tools such as insurance and irrigation, and reinvesting gains – all core ideas behind smart long-term investing.

Best for ages

7–12, with three built-in age levels.

How to play

Tap a field to choose what to plant, then tap to grow the season and harvest. No typing required.

Time to play

About 5–10 minutes for one farm year, depending on the level. There is no timer and no time pressure.

Players

One player; also great for an adult and child to play together.

Internet needed

No. It works fully offline.

Accounts or personal info

None. No sign-in, no names, and no personal information collected.

Works on

Phone, tablet, or computer.

Accessibility

Keyboard- and screen-reader-friendly; sound is optional and can be muted; motion effects respect reduced-motion settings; there are no timers.

How the Game Is Played

The goal is simple to understand and rich to play: grow a farm that does well and stays steady, season after season. The game’s signature image is a living field under a changing sky. Children see their whole patchwork of fields at a glance – the mix they planted – beneath a big sky that shifts with the season’s weather. The fields show diversification; the sky shows the risk they are planning for.

Each season moves through the same short, satisfying rhythm:

1. Look around. The child sees their coins and fields and, from Builder up, the season’s weather forecast.
2. Plant a mix. They tap each field to choose a crop. This is the heart of the decision: what to plant where, given what the weather might do.
3. Grow the season. They tap Grow my crops, and the sky reveals what actually happens – the part nobody controls.
4. Harvest. Each field’s result appears, and coins fly to the counter one field at a time. Children literally watch the mix add up: even if one field has a rough season, other fields may carry it.
5. Hear why. A friendly farmer explains what happened in plain words. At the top level, the child can also decide whether to reinvest some coins in a brand-new field before the next season.

Tapping is all that is needed. There is no dragging, no typing, and no clock. A warm farmer guide stands beside the action and offers a tip at every step. At the end of the run, the child earns 1, 2, or 3 stars and a celebration based on how the farm did.

What It Teaches

Harvest Hill teaches three connected habits. The farmer uses different words for them throughout the game, but they mirror the same habits grown-ups use when investing wisely:

1. Spread out (diversification)

The game makes one important idea visible: a real mix is not just more than one thing. A strong mix includes things that do well in different conditions. Each crop reacts differently to the same weather:

What each crop likes

Crop	Loves	How it behaves
Potatoes	Almost any weather	Steady and safe – a small but reliable harvest in every season. They are the “savings account” of the farm.
Tomatoes	Dry, sunny seasons	A big payoff when it is dry, but a weaker result when it is too wet. Bold and risky.
Rice	Wet, rainy seasons	A big payoff when it is wet, but a weaker result when it is too dry. The mirror image of tomatoes.
Pumpkins	A calm, normal season	The best harvest of all in mild weather, but unhappy in either a drought or a flood. Builder level and up.

Tomatoes and rice are the engine of the lesson: one wants sun, one wants rain. They are opposites, so whatever the season does, one of them is more likely to help.

Here is the same idea over a full range of weather on a six-field farm:

How a six-field farm fares across good and bad weather

Strategy	Its worst season	Its best season	Steady?
All tomatoes (only sun-lovers)	Loses 36 coins	Gains 84 coins	No – wild swings
All rice (only rain-lovers)	Loses 36 coins	Gains 84 coins	No – wild swings
A balanced mix (2 potato, 2 tomato, 2 rice)	Gains 2 coins	Gains 30 coins	Yes – positive every season

There is one more subtle idea in the older levels: planting two crops that both love dry weather can feel diversified because there are two crops, but a wet season can hurt them both at once. A true hedge needs something that responds differently to the same risk. It is not just about how many choices you have; it is about how those choices behave when conditions change.

2. Protect (managing risk you cannot control)

You cannot predict the weather perfectly, but you can prepare for it. Spreading out is the first and biggest way to do that. As children get older, the game adds extra tools:

Read the forecast – but treat it as a lean, not a promise (Builder). A weather vane in the sky leans toward what is most likely, with other possibilities still visible beside it. The farmer models the thinking out loud: “Looks like a dry season is most likely, but it isn’t certain – plant mostly sun-lovers, and keep a few backups, just in case.” The forecast is useful, but it is not perfect. Sometimes it is wrong, including a season or two where a confident signal flips completely. Going all-in on the forecast can backfire, while leaning toward it and keeping a hedge usually works better. That gap – useful enough to consider, uncertain enough to require a backup – is the lesson.

Prevent and insure – two different tools (Entrepreneur). The top level adds two ways grown-ups manage risk and keeps them clearly separate:

• Irrigation prevents. A one-time investment of 8 coins waters your fields, turning a dry season into a more normal one. It raises the farm’s floor without raising its best-case harvest, so it is smart before a likely-dry season and less useful before a wet one. Reading the forecast helps the child decide when it is worth the cost.
• Insurance protects. The child pays a small premium of 2 coins per field. If that field’s harvest fails, insurance pays the farm back to break even. The key lesson: if a crop does fine and the child never needs the insurance, that is a good thing – it means nothing went wrong. Insurance never pays more than the loss, so the child cannot profit from failure.

3. Reinvest (compounding)

After a good harvest, the child can spend coins to add a new field. The first new field costs 10 coins, and each one after that costs a little more. More fields can mean a bigger harvest next season, so steady gains build on themselves. That is the same basic engine as compounding, except here the child actively chooses to grow the farm. At the end, a net-worth chart shows the farm’s wealth season by season next to a faded line showing how an “all-in on one crop” farm would have done in the exact same weather. Seeing the two lines side by side makes the lesson visible: the steady path may look less exciting, but it can end stronger than the roller coaster.

The Three Levels

Pick the level that matches the child’s age. Every level uses the same farm and the same season rhythm; each one simply adds more decisions.

What changes at each level of Harvest Hill

Level	Ages	What changes at this level
Learner	7–8	Three crops: potatoes, tomatoes, and rice. Four fields and a quick three-season year. Simple weather: dry, normal, or wet. There is no forecast. Selling happens automatically. The focus is pure “plant a mix.” A gentle helping hand means the child can never lose or get stuck.
Builder	9–10	Adds pumpkins and the full five-step weather range from drought to flood. Six fields, a five-season year, and the weather forecast – a lean, not a promise. The forecast is sometimes wrong on purpose so kids learn to keep a backup. Coins now carry over, so a lean season matters.
Entrepreneur	11–12	Everything above plus grown-up tools: insurance, irrigation, a market where growing too much of one crop can lower its price, and reinvesting profits into new fields. The farm starts with six fields and can expand. The run lasts seven seasons and ends with a net-worth chart comparing the child’s steady farm to a risky all-in strategy.

The three stars at the end reinforce the balance lesson: 1 star for finishing the year, which is always reachable; 2 stars for ending with more coins than the child started with; and 3 stars for a farm that both grew and stayed steady. To earn all three, the farm needs a healthy final total, no disaster season that required the helping hand, and a real mix throughout the year. Going all-in or betting too heavily on the forecast can create a big season, but it can also trigger a disaster and miss the third star. Playing it completely safe may survive but grow too slowly. Balance is what earns all three.

How to Talk About It With Kids

A few questions while you play together can turn the game into a real conversation about money. Match the language to the child’s level.

Learner Ages 7–8

At this age, keep it concrete: the child planted different things, the weather changed, and something still came through. Focus on noticing rather than calculating.

Questions to ask

• When the weather changed, did all your fields have a good season, or just some of them?
• Which crop did well when it was dry? Which one liked the rain?
• One field had a tough season. Did you still get a harvest from the others?
• Why is planting a few different crops safer than planting just one?

Try it together: Line up a few toys or snacks as “crops,” call out pretend weather, such as sunny or rainy, and decide together which ones win. Show that having a mix means there is usually something that does well.

Builder Ages 9–10

Now bring in the forecast and the idea of a smart hedge: lean toward what seems likely, but do not bet the whole farm on it.

Questions to ask

• The forecast leaned toward one kind of weather. Did it turn out that way? How sure did it seem?
• Why is it smart to plant mostly what the forecast suggests, but still keep a few backup crops?
• One season the forecast was wrong. What happened to a farmer who bet everything on it? What happened to you?
• Would you rather have one amazing season and one terrible one, or several pretty-good seasons in a row? Why?

Try it together: Check a real weather forecast for the week. Talk about how it is a best guess, not a promise. Then notice a day when the forecast changes or turns out differently, and ask what a smart backup plan would have been.

Entrepreneur Ages 11–12

Push on the grown-up ideas the top level makes concrete: preventing versus insuring, why crashes hurt, and how a mix of investments works like a mix of crops.

Questions to ask

• What is the difference between irrigation, which prevents a problem, and insurance, which pays you back after one? When is each worth the money?
• You protected a crop and it did fine anyway. Was that money wasted? What does protection you did not need tell you?
• When you grew a huge pile of one crop, what happened to its price? How could spreading out have helped?
• Look at the chart: your steady line versus the all-in line. Which ended higher, and why can a big crash hurt more than a big win helps?
• How is owning a mix of investments, not just one, like planting a mix of crops?

Try it together: Talk about real insurance the family has, such as car, home, or phone insurance: a small regular cost that helps protect against one big surprise. Then talk about how grown-ups often spread savings or investments across more than one place for the same reason the child spread their fields.

Take It Off the Screen

• Spread out: Next time the child saves for something, talk about not putting every dollar in one place and what a “backup” might be.
• Forecasts are guesses: Read a real weather or sports forecast together, treat it as a best guess, and keep a plan B for when it is wrong.
• Insurance is for surprises: Point out insurance the family already pays for, and reframe protection you never use as a good thing, not a waste.
• Prevent vs. fix: Find an everyday example – a raincoat to prevent getting wet versus a towel to dry off afterward – and ask which the child would rather have.
• Reinvest: When the child earns or saves a little money, talk about putting some of it back to work so it can grow over time.
• Open a real kids’ savings or starter account at your credit union and connect the game’s habits to the real thing.

Words to Know

Diversify (spread out)

Plant different crops – especially ones that like different weather – so no single season can ruin the farm. In real life, people may spread money across different savings and investments for a similar reason.

Risk

The chance that things go differently than hoped. On the farm, the risk is the weather, which the child can prepare for but never control.

Hedge (a backup)

Something you plant or own that can do well when your main choice does badly – like keeping some rice even when you expect a dry, tomato-loving season.

Forecast

The game’s best guess at the coming weather, shown as a lean toward one outcome with other outcomes still possible. A forecast is a planning hint, not a sure thing and not something to bet money on.

Insurance

Paying a small premium so that if a crop fails, the farm is paid back to break even. Insurance limits the loss; it never pays more than the loss, and a season when you do not need it is a good season.

Irrigation

A one-time investment that waters the fields, turning a dry season into a more normal one. It prevents a problem rather than paying the farm back after one, and it only helps when the weather is dry.

Reinvest

Spend some of the harvest to add a new field, so the next season’s harvest can be bigger. It means putting gains back to work instead of spending them all.

Compounding

Growth that builds on earlier growth. More fields can make more coins, which can help buy more fields. Steady compounding can beat a boom-and-bust path.

Market price & glut

The amount the harvest sells for. If the child grows a huge pile of one crop and sells it all at once, they can flood, or glut, their own market and make the price step down – another reason to spread out.

The helping hand (recovery floor)

A small top-up if coins run low, so the child can always replant. It guarantees the child can never go broke or get stuck, but needing it means the farm had a disaster season, which costs the top score.

Coin

The farm’s unit of money. Everything – planting cost, harvest, and prices – is counted in whole coins.

Yield

How much a field harvests. It depends on the crop and the weather: a happy crop yields a lot, while a struggling crop yields only a little.

Season & weather

One turn of the game. Weather ranges from drought to flood. Older levels see all five steps: drought, dry, normal, wet, and flood. The youngest level sees three: dry, normal, and wet.

Net-worth chart

The line at the end showing the farm’s total wealth season by season, drawn against a faded “all-in one crop” farm so the child can see steady versus risky on the same weather.