Indoor Activities I do With My 5 Year Old

My 5-year-old enjoys the activities like art and craft, pretend games, coloring, etc. I always want to be a part of her activities so that one day, when I looked back I won't be missing out on the fun parts of parenting with my DD.

So, I choose some simple activities which are easy, cheap and fun to do.

Following are the some activities which I often do with my daughter when she is at home:

1. Reading: I read somewhere that "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them stories. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more stories." - Albert Einstein, We read lots of different books together be it story books, rhyme books, leaflets or dictionary.
   
2. Art and Craft: My 5 year old is the messy crafty kid. The craft supplies are inexpensive, this activity makes her imagination spark to create something new and interesting.
   
3. Drawing: I don't teach her how to draw. She just draws whatever surrounds her. Be it her friends, park drawing, family, etc. Here I just give her inputs whenever she asks for.
   
4. Gardening: She loves to water the plants.
5. Decorating her Room: She suggests me how she wants her room to be decorated. Even she created her own diys to put on the walls of her room. It is really fun, I know those were not upto the mark but it is OK. It is her room and it her will how she wants the room.
   
6.  Pretend Play: Yes, I pretend play with her. We have a big green board on which we play school play.
   
   Some props we used to pretend play are: 


• Happy Birthday Party: Cake made of claydough, Party caps and some more decor items.
• Restaurant Play: Need a small notepad and pen to take the order and some empty utensils to serve the meal.
• Kitchen: We play family pretend play where she pretends to be my mother and prepare meals for me. 
7. Playdough Activities: Playdough is her favorite activity. It develops fine motor skills, It strengthens hand muscles and develop control over the fingers. We pound it, we squash it together and make balls out of it. We make different shapes, animals and figures out of it.
   
8. Activity Books: These books build the IQ level of the kid, these books engage her in solving puzzles. These books are a healthy way to increase the IQ level of the kid, these activity books engage her also she learns good things at the same time. 
   

Some Good Activity Books:

How I choose books for my 5 year old?

Selecting a right book is the key to discover the fun of reading. I read somewhere "A book is unlimited investment in human mind and spirit." That is why the selection of books should be done with peaceful and relaxed mind.

My 5 year old is in her language development phase that is why I feel this is good time to add varieties of books in her book shelf.

Some of the benefits of reading aloud with you little one are:

• This is a fun activity which I and my daughter enjoy together.
• It builds listening skills in her.
• It improves concentration,
• She now express herself more.
• She is really curious which generate lots of questions in her mind.
• She started putting logic in various scenarios of day to day life.
• She also starts making her own stories and songs.
• The more you read to your child, more they get exposure to the new words. That is how their vocabulary also get increase.

Lets come back to the topic, how I select a book for her:

Illustrations are the main attractions to her. I always get her book which has bright colors, big pictures which she can easily relate to the ongoing story.

Informative books which take a particular topic like astronomy, weather, animal etc. and teach kids the concept of the topic  by rhymes or stories with fun texts or activities.

Take books which have lots of rhyming and repetitive texts because they are easy to memorize and read.

Read few lines from the book or narrate summary of the story and ask her if she is interested to add the book in her book collection.

Some books which are recommended by her friends mother or teacher.

The last but not the least, the book needs not to be a award winning or bestseller in the shop. Choose a book which you and your child will enjoy together.