What can I do to encourage my 5 year old's development?

• Make an effort to have conversations with your child during the day.
• Be sure to praise their efforts.
• Respect your child's feelings and emotion.
• Show how to take turns by playing board games or card games with your child.
• Build confidence in your child by giving simple chores to do such as emptying the garbage bin or setting the table.
• Put together an obstacle course in your backyard for your child to practice all her physical skills. A hula hoop can be for jumping into, a skipping rope could be used for walking along, a large box could be for crawling through. Use your imagination and get creative!
• Make sure a variety of art supplies are readily available. For example, finger paints, scissors, glue, pencils, crayons, play dough and lots of paper. Put it all in a large plastic container and you can just pull it out quickly when needed.
• Praise your child's writing and drawing efforts. They are just beginning to gain confidence in this area and it's very important to encourage all their efforts.
• To help your child understand patterns you could use colored wooden blocks and start a pattern such as blue, yellow, blue, yellow and ask them to continue it for you. Try clapping simple rhythms and have your child repeat it back to you.
• To foster an interest in numbers and letters read books to your child which focus on these.
• Show family photos to your child and encourage them to use their words to tell you what is happening in them.
• Have your child tell you a story - you can write it down for them and they can draw the picture.
• Read to your child. Have them look at the cover of a book and try to predict what it will be about. Point out simple words.
• Setting up a store with a cash register is a great way to encourage math concepts.

Related Tips

• Milestones - kindergartner - 5 years old
• Here is a guide to how your 5 year old is learning and growing over this year.
• more

• Toys for kindergartners
• We all need some ideas and suggestions for what our children may need for their play life. Here is a start.
• more

• Is my child ready for school
• How do you know if your child is ready for kindergarten? Here is a list of things to think about to ready your child for school.
• more

• Why read to your kindergartner
• A child can learn and benefit greatly from being read to right from the day they are born.
• more