As a parent of a 3-5-year-old, you must be familiar with the roller coaster of emotions that come with this highly energetic age. Between your child’s boundless energy and insatiable curiosity, it can feel like there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to keep them entertained. To help you out with this, we have compiled a list of fun activities for you and your little one to enjoy together. These activities can also have a positive impact on your child’s cognitive and social development. They can help them better comprehend the world around them and cultivate essential skills like communication, problem-solving, and imagination. From moulding mud creatures to unearthing fossils in your backyard sandbox, get ready to create magical memories while fostering your child’s creativity.
Have a Blast with Your Little One: 20 Exciting Activities to Try Together
1. Finger Painting and Colouring
This is an easy and creative entertainment option for you and your little one. You can watch your child’s face light up with joy as they explore the wonderful world of colour mixing. Let them mix colours to create new ones, make handprints and footprints, and create textured masterpieces with fingers, sponges, and other creative tools.
2. Puzzles and Matching Games
Mix up puzzle pieces and ask your toddler to match up the pieces to make a picture. Also, alternate with collecting simple objects from around the house to create a matching game. Match shapes and texture or colour—there’s a lot of room for creativity here.
3. Cutting, Gluing, and Building
Grab construction paper, craft supplies, and imagination - then get ready to tear, glue, and construct whatever designs your child’s fertile imagination can come up with.
4. Playdough and Clay Modelling
Round up some modelling clay and mini rolling pins, cookie cutters, and moulds. Discover the amazing shapes you can make by rolling out the dough and cutting shapes with the mini tools. Create a castle, an animal shape, or your favourite pizza with toppings - the sky is the limit.
5. Balance Beam and Obstacle Courses
Line up a few pillows or cushions and have your child walk or jump over them. As they get more skilled and confident, you can make the courses more adventurous by adding in jumps and tight turns.
6. Bicycle Riding
Attach a seat or trailer to your bicycle and allow your child to join the bicycling adventure. Explore close to home on level ground with a local park or playground. Bicycling is a great way to introduce them to the fun of being outdoors.
7. Swinging and Sliding
Treat your little one to a swing set and a slide outside in your backyard, or take them to the nearest park for a memorable outdoor adventure. Watch with joy as their face lights up, trying to swing and glide down the slide.
8. Tossing and Catching Ball Games
All ball games are simple and fun. Plus, it helps hand-eye coordination. Stand a short distance away from your toddler and toss the ball back and forth. Make it a bit more exciting by counting the number of successful catches in a row or anything your little one enjoys.
9. Singing and Dancing
Your living room can become your stage. Teach them some of your favourite moves, like clapping and twirling, and have them show you some of theirs. Tickle their sides and lift them up in the air, and watch the glee on your little one’s face.
10. Instruments and Music Makers
With some basic supplies like paper cups, rubber bands, and straws, your toddler can easily create a shaker, drum, or flute. You can write songs for them to play along to. Your toddler will love exploring all the different sounds they create.
11. Puppets and Storytelling
Use your own homemade puppets or purchase store-bought ones, and act out stories and engage the puppets in action or enact funny conversations. Read stories aloud, and invite your child to join in. Ask them to make the voices of characters or play certain parts with their puppets.
12. I Spy Objects to Spot
The rules are simple: choose one object and give your toddler a clue as to where it might be hiding. Inside the house, it could be under a chair, on the table, behind the curtains, etc. Challenge them to find that object.
13. Guessing Games with Colors, Textures & Shapes
Allow your baby to hold an object blindfolded and guess its colour, texture, and shape. When you’re out for a walk, look for birds in the trees, clouds in the sky, and colourful flowers in the grass.
14. Memory Games with Animal Cards
Draw or print animal cards by yourself, or buy them from a store. Then, simply place them face down in a grid on the floor or table and have your child take turns turning over two cards at a time. If they match, great! If not, just flip them back over, and it’s their turn again
15. Sandbox Sensory Exploration
Let your child experience a stimulating variety of textures, colours, and shapes by helping your child move their hands and fingers through the sand. Add some spoons and cups so they can try building structures and castles or draw letters, shapes, and numbers in the sand with a stick.
16. Planting Holes for Watering Flowers
Your baby will love scooping soil, mixing it in with water, and watching the water bubble up out of the soil before filling the hole. Give them a little watering can, and they’ll have an absolute blast helping you water the flowers. Not to mention, the plants will love it too.
17. Cloud Watching and Nature Scavenger Hunts
Take a relaxing stroll and encourage your little one to look for shapes and patterns in the clouds. Imagine cotton ball cloud birds, aeroplanes etc., or engage in a nature scavenger hunt by having your toddler search for items like a feather, a stick, a leaf, or an acorn.
18. Bubbles
Make bubbles solution with everyday household items, like dish soap and water. Then try blowing through straws, hula hoops, cups, and more. See what bubble wands you can make and explore together and watch as your creations drift away in the wind.
19. Dress up
All you need is some clothes, a few props, and your toddler’s vivid imagination. Let them be Cinderella for a day or an astronaut exploring the cosmos—they don’t have to stick to one character; they can make up their own stories as they go.
20. Pretend Adventure
Become a pirate, captain a ship, or travel to space and land on the moon! There are endless possibilities when the plot does not have any limitations, and the main character is your toddler.
It is important to remember that safety should always come first when doing any of the activities suggested here. Parents should supervise their children at all times, especially during physical activities that involve balance or coordination, like riding a bicycle. Some of the suggested activities may involve small objects or materials that could potentially cause choking, so it's important for parents to ensure that the activities are appropriate for their child's age and that the objects are not small enough to be swallowed.
Parting Thoughts
It can often be hard to know what activities are suitable for your 3-5-year-old child. With this list of 20 fun activities, you can have the assurance that all of these activities will provide your child with hours of enjoyment while teaching them important skills along the way. From arts and crafts to outdoor exploration and imaginative play - all these activities can help build a strong foundation in your child’s physical, emotional, and mental development. For more ways to engage in fun activities with your child, check out Raising Superstars activity-based prodigy programmes that uncover new methods of inspiring your baby’s imagination and creativity.
