What To Teach a 5 Year Old? Useful Tips and Tricks

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what to teach a 5 year old kid

Has your child just turned five? Do you often find yourself fretting about your child’s development? Are you worried about what to teach a 5-year-old? Are there pieces of conflicting advice pouring in from everywhere but you don’t know what to do? Parenting is not a piece of cake but we’ll try to make it easier for you.

Why you must know what to teach a 5-year-old?

As soon as your baby is 5 years old, you should know that he has developed almost 90 percent of his brain capacity already. At age 5, your child’s sense of independence is increasing accompanied by a SpongeBob eagerness to know more about the world. This growing independence and curiosity is a powerful combination that yields the best time for exploration and creativity. Get ready to be surprised every day.

At this age, you must know what to teach a 5-year-old to make the best use of his extremely receptive brain and make an everlasting impression on their personalities.

Also Read: How To Teach Your Kid About Bad Touch?

Reinforcing Physical Development

At this age, your child should be able to hop, skip, jump, do somersaults, and stand on one leg for more than 10 seconds. The physical development of hand muscles has occurred to the maximum and they acquire fine motor skills and coordination. Parents want to know what to teach a 5-year-old to reinforce healthy physical development.

  • Make sure your child gets enough food and sleep for optimum physical development
  • Ensure at least 180 minutes of physical activity throughout the day including 60 minutes of energetic play (moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity).
  • Plan fun activities that they may find enjoyable.
  • Take your child to a doctor for regular check-ups.

Activities that develop gross motor skills

  • Take them to a playground and encourage activities such as running, climbing, and swinging.
  • Help them develop their large muscles with the help of equipment like a hula hoop, a tricycle, and beanbags.
  • Play games like catch and tag with them.

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Activities that develop fine motor skills

Design different activities to develop fine motor skills:

  • Drawing
  • Using toys that require fitting together such as Lego blocks
  • Cutting paper with scissors
  • Barbie dress-up games
  • Blowing bubbles with a straw

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Promoting Language Development

A five-year-old should be able to speak fluently. Their vocabulary usually reaches 2000 words. You can help them a lot in the development of language as they will mostly say the words you have taught them or spoken in front of them.

What to teach a 5-year-old?

Children of this age need to be taught many important words and concepts that will help them in school too. They include:

  • Names of everyday objects
  • Sight words
  • Rhyming words
  • Colors
  • Shapes
  • Positional words like up, down, below
  • Days of the weeks
  • Numbers
  • Cardinal numbers
  • The concept of yesterday, today, tomorrow
  • Animals and birds
  • Fruit and vegetables
  • Names of the continents
  • The lifecycle of a butterfly

Also Read: Why Neglecting Emotional Needs Of a Child Can Be Traumatic?

Don’t overwhelm them with too many words

You must want your child to have a good vocabulary. But you should not overwhelm them with too many big new words. As a matter of fact, you must tone down the verbosity and gauge whether your child is enjoying new words or ending up frustrated.

Make learning fun

Use resource materials like picture books and toys. Engage them in activities and games that require listening, following directions, and speaking. Allow them to reason and argue. Ask them to narrate stories.

Also Read: How To Protect Your Children From Sexual Abuse?

Developing reading skills

So what to teach a five-year-old about reading? Your child at this age must be able to read. The most effective way to teach them how to read is by teaching them phonemes and blending them.

But the more important part is to inculcate a life-long love for reading in them. Instead of trying to make them “memorize” stuff, help them enjoy reading. Make reading a joyous event for them.

How to foster a love of reading?

  • Start a reading ritual. Bedtime or breakfast storytime is an honored tradition that establishes a calming routine that children love.
  • Use books to bond. When a child sits in your lap as you read, he may not enjoy the book but enjoys your lap of undivided attention.
  • Choose age-appropriate books.
  • Make reading fun. Put on different voices. Vary your pitch and volume according to the mood of the story. Growl like Baba Bear; squeal like Piglet.
  • Take them to a library and allow them to choose books from the kids’ gallery.

Also Read: How To Save Your Child From A Bad Home Environment?

Cognitive Development: Plan Learning and Educational Activities

A 5-year-old has a perceptive and imaginative way of thinking. Hence, it is important to know what to teach a 5-year-old to develop their cognitive abilities. Here are some activities you can try which develop their visual discrimination and spatial skills.

  • Plan sorting and matching activities for them in everyday household tasks. For example, matching pairs of socks; sorting laundry, and silverware.
  • Provide them with simple puzzles to play with.
  • Help them understand cause-and-effect.
  • Plan games to help them understand shapes and sizes.
  • Play games that require them to match objects that are the same or different.
  • A simple dice activity can improve basic arithmetic skills.
  • Develop their fantasy and imagination. Give them space and props to enter an imaginary world.
  • Provide them with creative materials such as colorful yarn, pipe cleaners, safety-scissors, ice cream sticks, and seeds. Allow them to use these for artwork. Let their imagination run wild.

Also Read: How Does It Affect a Child Mentally If Parents Are Fighting All The Time?

Encouraging Social and Emotional Development

It is rewarding to watch your children grow taller and more independent. But are you concerned about their social and emotional development? Do you want to know what to teach a 5-year-old in this area?

Children at five years show major emotional development when friends start becoming important to them. They start liking to play in groups. Still, parents should help them in developing these emotions of concern, sympathy, and love.

Also Read: 14 Things Every Child Should Learn Before Turning 10

What to teach a 5-year-old about love?

We think that all children are naturally loving and generous. But these feelings need to be reciprocated to last.

  • Let him see you demonstrate love and affection to other people you love; for example, your spouse and your child’s grandparents.
  • Say “I love you” more often.
  • Show them your love in unexpected ways. Don’t allow your frantic and frenetic routine to squeeze loving gestures out of your day. Pack a note in their lunchbox. Tape it to a bathroom mirror.
  • Make your child feel free to express love.

Encourage sharing and taking turns

Make sure your child has regular social contact with other children his age, both one-to-one and in a group. Observe him play with others and listen to what he says about his friends. This is an opportunity to teach him to cooperate with others, wait for his turn, resolve conflicts, and build and maintain friendships.

Also Read: How To Be A Good Mom?

Moral Development: What to teach a 5-year-old about values

Most parents tend to believe that it is premature to teach values to a preschooler. It is a major misconception. Values taught at this age go with your child a long way.

Teach them to be honest

  • Be a truthful person yourself. We often tend to speak lies in front of children. We try to justify them and give them a complicated explanation of the distinction between various kinds of lies. It makes them confused and gives the impression that fibbing is okay sometimes.
  • Do not overreact if they lie.
  • Do not punish them for being honest. If you have told them that you won’t yell at them for being honest, then you must NOT.

Insist that they make amends

“Say sorry!” This is what we are likely to tell our child if he does anything bad. Saying “I am sorry” is pretty easy for children and helps them to get away without much thought. So what to teach a 5-year-old? A better way which conveys a stronger message is by asking them to make amends. For instance, if they’ve broken somebody’s toy, tell them to give their toy to the person. Ask them to make an apology card if they’ve upset somebody. This teaches them to treat people fairly.

Encourage them to take a challenge

“You are the best.” If you keep telling your children this, it makes them sloppier. Avoid excessive praise. Provide them honest feedback delivered in a gentle supportive fashion. Encourage them to do things that aren’t easy and praise them if they can make an effort: “I know it was hard; you did great.” This teaches them determination.

Teach them how to behave

Are you worried about the behavior of your child? Are you wondering what to teach a 5-year-old about discipline and how to teach it?

  • Decide on family rules.
  • Be a role model for the behavior you expect.
  • Praise your child for good behavior.
  • Set limits and consequences for bad behavior.

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Red-flags: Is your child developing properly?

Every child grows at his own rate. But look for red-flags that show your child is not developing properly. You need to seek help from a pediatrician if your child:

  • Loses acquired skills
  • Gets distracted easily
  • Stays aloof and withdrawn
  • Does not respond to instructions
  • Is unable to hold a crayon or scribble
  • Displays extreme behavior
  • Cannot differentiate between real and make-believe

Upshot

All children grow at different rates and it is okay!

You must know that every child has his own learning curve. They tend to grow at their own pace and it is okay. Hence, do not worry unless you notice the red-flags.

If parents know, children grow!

At this age, your child’s brain is very receptive. So, it is the best time to exercise different areas of their brain. Utilize this time to help your child grow and learn. So, you must know what to teach a 5-year-old to maximize his or her physical, mental, social, emotional, and moral development.

 

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