50 Things To Do Together Before You're 5
Playing and Learning Together
31 - 50 of the list focuses on all the fun activities you can do together which helps your child's learning and development.
31. Mark Making
Mark making is the creation of different patterns, lines and shapes that we make, and this doesn’t have to be with paper and pencils. These marks will gradually develop into writing and drawing as your child gets older. Encouraging mark making builds up the strength and coordination needed to make these initial marks.
Babies (Under 1)
- Cover your babies highchair or a tray with foil and provide them with a few paints. Your baby will love the sounds and sights of the paint on the foil and it will motivate them to want to make marks! Once you are done you can keep it as a beautiful picture and very little cleaning up!
Toddlers (2 years)
- Mark making with your two-year-olds is really important to strengthen those early writing skills. It can be as simple as putting flour and glitter in a builders tray or dinner tray and encouraging your child to make marks in the flour using their fingers or provide them with some other mark making tools. Shake the tray and you’ll have a blank canvas to start again!
Pre-schoolers (3-5 years)
- With your pre-school age children you can create something on a bit of a bigger scale to make things a bit more exciting. Get an old bed sheet, spray bottles filled with paint and other mark making tools, paintbrushes, twigs etc. put your old bed sheet in the garden or park, pegged up to a fence and let them use all their gross motor skills and imagination to create a masterpiece. You could let it dry and use it as a den cover see number 32 - Make a Den.
32. Make a Den Inside or Outside
Den building is always a fun activity that children will love this can be as simple as placing a blanket over two chairs and sitting inside. Or more complex by making a fortress with the cushions from your sofa. When outdoors try making a den in the forest using sticks. Whichever way you choose children will love the space you create together.
Baby (Under 1)
- Your baby won’t be able to help you build a den just yet, but you can create them a safe and exciting sensory den. Find a safe space that you can put a dark shelter with a bed sheet or blanket and ensure the ground underneath is soft. Put in any flashing lights, mirrors, household objects that are safe with different textures and interactive toys.
Toddler (2 years)
- Get all the relevant materials like blankets, clothes pegs, sticks, chairs etc. you can do this inside or outside. Support and help your child to build their own den that they can be proud of. To extend this you could use your den as a base for a story, for example, read ‘we’re going on a bear hunt’ and the den could be the cave at the end of the story, put the bear in there waiting!
33. Make a Treasure Basket
These can be made using all types of household items. As ideas, you could do themed treasure baskets. A theme could include different types of metal objects, like pans, whisks, metal utensils and metal bangles. This would give your child a chance to bang the metals to make sounds and develop their grip skills when holding the objects. Another treasure basket idea could be different sponges, wooden objects or different materials.
Baby (Under 1)
- Treasure baskets are a great way for your baby to explore different materials and textures with all their senses. You can have themed treasure baskets, for example a wooden basket, go around the house and look for anything wooden and safe for your baby e.g. wooden spoon, spatulas, bangles, wooden brushes. Allow your child to explore and describe everything they are touching.
Toddler (2 years)
- Your two-year-old will still enjoy the sensory experience of exploring household items, you could try having 4 separate baskets with items in that are the same colour. You could hunt round the house to find items of that colour, for example, fill your first basket with red items, the next green and so on. Once you have created your treasure baskets with colours you could turn this into a colour sorting game and explore the items in the baskets.
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- As your child gets older, they will be more in tune with their senses, get a few empty glitter pots, soak cotton wool balls in scents, such as coffee, hot chocolate powder, hair conditioner, pop the lid back on and get your child to guess the smell. You could have this as a basket that you keep and swap the smells every now and again.
34. Play with Puppets
The simplest of toys are sometimes the best ones and puppets can be used in so many ways that your child will love. From bringing stories to life, role play, reading, games and more your child will benefit and be entertained by puppets.
Baby (Under 1)
- Pick your child’s favourite story and bring it to life for them! Use a torch and create some simple puppets on lollypop sticks, read the story, acting out the story. Great family activity to involve siblings and parents.
Toddler (2 years)
- Pick your child’s favourite story and bring it to life for them! Let your child create their own puppets on lollypop sticks and then use a torch to act out the story and maybe even try and add their own twists and turns to the story.
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Children love to use their imagination at this age. Let them create their own story with characters, create your characters on lollypop sticks and listen whilst they tell their stories and act out using their puppets.
35. Finger Painting
Finger painting is a useful and fun way of helping a child to learn to mark make, develop their fine motor skills (using their fingers) and exploring messy play. At an early age your child just may want to squeeze the paint in their fists, older children may want to do dots, lines or shapes with their fingers.
Baby (Under 1)
- Babies enjoy exploring new textures and feelings and often using their mouths too! You could try making edible paint using Greek yoghurt and food colouring and just let your child freely make marks using their fingers, hands, feet!
Toddler (2 years)
- Go for a walk and collect some leaves to paint. Come home and paint your leaves all different colours and see the different patterns on the leaves, you could also print with your leaves or other natural objects that you have found out on your walk.
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Your child will still enjoy painting with their fingers, but you could try and see if they could make a pattern using the different colours you provide them with, for example, red, then green, then red etc. spots with their fingers. This is quite tricky so they should be proud if they manage to create a pattern.
36. Smile at your Reflection in the Mirror
This is a great activity for young children. Babies that look at their own reflection in a mirror will find this fun and learn a sense of identity. Looking in a mirror will encourage a baby to smile or change their face which will strengthen their facial muscles, which will in turn support their talking when they are older.
Baby (Under 1)
- This is a great way to get your baby to begin to recognise itself! You can play peek-a-boo in the mirror to make it a more fun activity and look in the mirror just gradually getting them to recognise themselves.
Toddler (2 years)
- Your child will be able to recognise themselves in the mirror and they may enjoy looking in the mirror. You can help your child to point out their eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair and then see if they can find their own facial features!
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- You can use mirror play as a great way to get children to understand facial expressions, you could pull a sad face and ask your child to pull a sad face in the mirror so they can see what sad might look like and the same for other emotions. You could also get your child to look in the mirror and try and draw themselves!
37. Make a Sensory Bag or Bottle
This is a great activity to do with your child with items that you may already have. Sensory play helps young children learn about the world around them and can be a very calming activity for toddlers and preschool children.
Baby (Under 1)
- As a lot of things that you will put in a sensory bottle may not be safe for your baby, you can make the sensory bottle and ensure the lid is secure and then allow your baby to explore the bottle, what it looks like, the different sounds it makes.
Toddler (2 years)
- Your two-year-old will want to get involved in the making of the sensory bottle so use a funnel and a spoon for them to be able to scoop all the hard bits into the bottle, ensuring that they do not put anything unsafe towards or in their mouth and they can pour any liquids in through the funnel. Allow them to explore once you’ve completed your bottle! Ensure the lid is securely on with tape/glue.
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Your child can help you with their sensory bottle, for things like buttons, feathers etc. you can use a pair of child friendly tweezers for them to put the items into the bottle, this will help with their fine motor skills. Ensure that children do not put anything in their mouths. Ensure the lid is securely on with tape/glue.
38. Make your Own Gloop
This is one of the easiest messy play ideas around. Simply place cornflour into a bowl and pour in water. You will need to add enough water to make the consistency as thick or as thin as you want it. You could add colour or flavours to this. You child will be able to play in this, add toys or make marks in it. This activity is good for strengthening the muscles in a child’s hand which will then help them to hold writing equipment when they are older.
Baby (Under 1)
- Put your baby in just their nappy and let them explore the gloop using their whole body! All you’ll need is a tray and the ingredients. Allowing babies to use their whole bodies ensures they’re using all their senses which is great for their development.
Toddler (2 years)
- Put your gloop in a tray and provide your child with a variety of tools that they can mark make in the gloop with. You could talk about why it’s disappearing every time you make a mark! Try drawing circles and lines in the gloop and watch how quick they disappear!
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Keep your ingredients separate and allow your child to mix the ingredients themselves, talk with your child about whether you might need more flour? More water? To get it to that right consistency. You could talk about the science behind the gloop! Is it melting? Is it softening? Tricky to get your head around, but a great talking point!
39. Make Homemade Play Dough
Making play dough at home is a fun way of letting your child be creative. You can completely change the play dough to suit your mood. Whether you want minty fresh green play dough or a lemon drizzle play dough with a bumpy texture and sparkle. You can add colourings, flavours, textures and glitter to add some creativity.
Baby (under 1)
- Your babies will love putting things in their mouths, so it’s best to provide them with a playdough that isn’t salty or sugary! Edible playdough recipe:
- You will need: ½ cup of plain flour, ½ cup of cornflour, 1/3 cup of gelatine powder, 1tbs cooking oil, 1 cup of water.
- Instructions: Mix all dry ingredients together. Next, add the oil, water and any food colouring and mix well. Next, heat over a medium heat, stirring constantly. Then, remove from the heat when it’s stiff and leave to cool. Finally, knead until smooth, adding flour if needed and play!
- This recipe will be safe if your baby decided to lick or put a little in their mouth! Let your baby explore the texture and colours, you could add a scent for an extra sensory experience!
Toddler (2 years)
- You know your two-year-old best, so whether you will need the edible dough recipe as above or the standard recipe is up to you! You could include some rollers and cutters with your playdough and create some exciting shapes. This will really help with your child’s fine motor skills.
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- See our video playing with play dough is great for strengthening hand muscles for early writing skills. Why not try Number 47 - Enjoy a Finger Gym
40. Baking Together
Baking is such a good way of introducing your child to cooking. Baking is so versatile and can be done however your imagination takes you. Simply search for a cake recipe online and get your aprons on. Let you child help with the weighing, stirring and mixing and they will feel an even greater sense of pride when your cake is pulled out of the oven. Don’t forget to #50ThingsTogether to let us see your creations.
Baby (Under 1)
- Place your baby in their highchair or any other suitable seat, sit with them as you measure out all the ingredients, let your child safely explore all the ingredients. Older babies will want to try and mix and help! Talk to your babies throughout the activity about everything that you are doing, naming all the ingredients too.
Toddler (2 years)
- Have all the ingredients at a height your child can reach and see. Name all the ingredients to your child and let them smell, touch and see all of them. Get your child involved with measuring out the ingredients, mixing, setting the timer on the oven. You could watch the cake rise and check how long it has left! This is a great activity for patience and waiting for your two-year-old. Get ingredients to decorate after, completing their masterpiece!
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Have all the ingredients at a height your child can reach and see. Name all the ingredients to your child and let them smell, touch and see all of them. Get your child involved with measuring out the ingredients, talking about the numbers on the scales, mixing, setting the timer on the oven. To extend this, you could set up a ‘bakery’ with some of your baking, have a till (doesn’t need to be fancy, a shoe box will do), shelves and some money. Let your child be the baker and shop keeper and let their imaginations run away with them, selling their masterpieces to all the family!
41. Help a Friend
This can be anything and everything; whether it be a cuddle when they are upset or helping them get their coat on. Making relationships and being caring of others is all part of a child’s development. The more a child is encouraged to do nice acts of kindness, the more they will want to do them.
Baby (Under 1)
- Your babies won’t understand kindness just yet, but you can encourage them to give cuddles and kisses to those close to them. Giving praise to your baby when they give their teddy or sibling a cuddle will begin to make them more inclined to be kind to others.
Toddler (2 years)
- Your two-year-old is slowly but surely beginning to learn what kind gestures are. You could make a beautiful picture for a grandparent, friend, aunty or uncle and take them round to their house and support your two-year-old to pass over their kind gesture and receive praise.
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Your pre-school aged child will be glad to receive praise and know how that feels. You could ask them who they think helps them and does nice things for them? Whether that be their nursery teacher, postman, parents, family, friends, after that discussion of who they feel does kind things for them and nice to them, show them what a kind gesture is and support them in completing that gesture, whether that be a beautiful picture, saying thank you to the postman in the morning or giving grandma a big cuddle!
42. Write and Post a Letter
This can be a fun way to help your enjoy mark making. They can write, draw or paint a letter or postcard. Send it to someone special or even yourself. Everyone loves getting letters and they will be so exciting when they get their very own post. You could even post a letter to a friend to arrange a play date through their door.
Baby (Under 1)
- Create a beautiful painting or picture with your baby. Go for a nice walk to the post box and post the letter with your child and tell them who you’re sending it to. Wave at the postman when you see them and tell your baby that’s who’s sending your beautiful picture!
Toddler (2 years)
- Create a beautiful painting, picture or squiggles and drawings! Explain to your child that you’ll go together to put it in the post box and the postman will pick it up and deliver it to whoever you’re sending it to. Once that person receives your post, if you can, get them to bring it round and show your child that they’ve received your beautiful post! That person could send one back too.
Pre-schooler (3-5years)
- Sit together with your child and write a letter to someone that they know. Your child will love making their squiggles and it will mean so much to them, if they can they could attempt to form some letters! Take your post to your nearest post box and again, try and get the receiving person to send a letter back and come and show your child that they received their post. The Jolly Postman is a great, interactive story that shows children how post gets to their door and what the postman does.
43. Sleep in your own Bed for a whole week
Getting your child into their own bed and sleeping through the night is a challenge for any parent. Once they are in though, it is such an achievement for you both.
Babies
- Sleeping in their own room or bed for a whole week is not something you need to worry about with your babies.
Toddlers (2 years)
- If your child has their own bed and you wish for them to sleep in there, try some of the bedtime routine links that might help. A lot of children thrive off routine and it helps them to feel more relaxed as they know what’s going to happen next. As your children get older, they may respond well to a sleep chart that rewards them for sleeping in their bed for the whole week! A small reward each day for sleeping in there another day. Reward ideas – exciting messy play activity, a trip to the park, reading their favourite story at a time you wouldn’t normally.
44. Read a Book to your Friend or Family
Reading is such an important skill to have. This can help them with their talking, self-confidence and literacy. It does not matter if your child holds the book upside down, reads left to right or even just uses their imagination to describe what is in the pictures. This is all the start of reading and will having a love of books.
Baby (Under 1)
- Allow your baby to always have access to books, they love listening to the different tones you make and watching your facial expressions too. When you have friends and families over, let them share stories with your baby, they will learn a lot from the different ways that different people read stories!
Toddler (2 years)
- Allow your child to always have access to books throughout the day. Encourage them to name what they can see in the pictures and what they think the story is about, this is all the beginnings of learning to read and letting their imagination take charge. When your friends and families come over, get them to encourage your child to read their story to them too, turning the pages, naming what they see, it’s all the foundations to a brilliant reader!
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Allow your child to always have access to books throughout the day. Encourage your child to make up stories, when you’re reading to them asking them leading questions like ‘what do you think is going to happen next?’ Allow them that time to think and respond. When your friends and family come around encourage your child to read the stories that they have made up or ones that they are familiar with. A great way for a child to feel confident in telling stories is helicopter stories.
45. Bake a Salt Dough Decoration
Salt dough is one of the easiest ways to make a dough which you can bake to harden. This is a great way of making lasting memories with your child. What about making something as a homemade present for a loved one. This will need adult supervision.
Baby (Under 1)
- Allow your child to explore the ingredients, put them in their highchair or another suitable seat and talk them through everything you’re doing. Pop them in the oven and once cooled, let your child decorate using paints, glitters and other exciting things! Try and make sure they don’t put it in their mouths as they’re very salty!
Toddler and Pre-schooler
- Have all the ingredients at a height your child can reach and see. Name all the ingredients to your child and let them smell, touch and see all of them. Allow them to mix and knead the dough, you can use cutters to make different shapes or let your child make their own creation that means something to them. Bake it in the oven and once cooled, decorate using paints, glitter, glues and sticky bits! Try and make sure they don’t put it in their mouths as they’re very salty!
46. Make a Homemade Musical Instrument
There are many ways of making musical instruments and your child will love making their own music. They can use their own instruments for rhymetimes, dancing and singing with. #50ThingsTogether to show us how daring and creative you have been.
Baby (Under 1)
- Babies love different sounds and will tune into them quite quickly. A bottle filled with rice and glitter is simple but effective. You could use it for your nursery rhymes at home, you have one and sing to the beat and give your baby one too to explore whilst singing. Always ensure the lids are secure.
Toddler (2 years)
- Two-year-old love being noisy! and shakers are perfect follow the video above. Try and get your child to shake to the beat with you as you dance, listen to music and sing. Use glitter, painted/coloured pastas etc. to make it a little bit more colourful. When you’re out and about walking, all you need is a stick for a musical instrument, bang it on all the different things you see on your walk and listen to and talk about all the different sounds it makes!
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Another way to make a musical instrument is to get a clear Tupperware box, put inside rice, pasta, glitter etc. and cover the top with greaseproof paper using an elastic band, you then have a shaker stroke drum! Your pre-schooler will be able to do this with little assistance. Once finished, make a beat with your instrument and try and get your child to copy the beat you’ve just done, a tricky one but great for your child’s listening and attention skills!
47. Enjoy a Finger Gym
Going to the gym has always been important for our health and well-being, but have you ever heard of a gym specifically for your fingers? Well at Cheshire East we have, and we want to show you how easy they are and what they are for. Finger gyms are designed to develop a child’s fine motor skills (using their fingers). A finger gym will help a child’s hand eye coordination as well as their dexterity.
Baby (Under 1)
- Your baby might be too young to be interested in a finger gym using dough and accessories, but a great way to strengthen their hands ready for their writing skills later in life is to provide them with water play using sponges. Show your baby that if you squeeze the sponge water will come falling out, this keeps lots of babies fascinated for quite some time! You don’t even need to make it a specific activity, just add some sponges to bath time!
Toddler (2 years)
- Roll your play dough out flat or into balls. Provide your child with different accessories like pom poms, large buttons, large beads (all things that are not choking hazards for your little one). Show them that you can pick them up and press them into the dough to make a beautiful creation. You could put your balls of play dough into cupcake cases and decorate your ‘cakes’ using the accessories!
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- As show above in the video, a great way to strengthen your child’s fine motor skills is to use threading! Simply make some play dough, stick an uncooked spaghetti into the play dough and add as many cheerio’s as possible! Count them as they go on and see how many it takes to fill a whole spaghetti.
48. Go on a Treasure Hunt
How exciting, you have set the scene, your child is a pirate looking for the lost treasures of Cheshire East. They are hunting around their garden, home or outside area. They have the tools needed to find the treasure – a basket, binoculars, digging tools or a tea stained treasure map. They can also dress in fancy dress to add to the role. This can be as large scale or small as you want. Why not try searching for golden coins or laminated treasures.
Baby (Under1)
- For your babies that are sitting and not yet crawling, you can get an old box as a treasure box and put lots of shiny household items in and talk about them with your baby and let them explore. For your babies that are crawling, set out a space in the garden or park that isn’t too big and put out different shiny objects and praise your baby when they find them! Allow your baby to explore the items and enjoy!
Toddler (2 years)
- Why not dress up as pirates and hide several ‘treasures’ in the garden, house or park! Your child can tick off the list when they’ve found each item, you could put an X to mark the spot and they have to dig using a spade to find the treasure! Children will really enjoy getting into character.
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Dress up as pirates, an old ripped shirt and shorts that doesn’t quite fit anymore will be perfect. Get your child to help you make the map, you could even stain it with wet water and a tea bag. Once you’ve made the map, hide the treasures and mark the X’s on the map. Your child may need some assistance, being a pirate isn’t an easy job! Dig up your treasures/find them and enjoy!
49. Make a Junk Modelling creation
Junk modelling is a great way to limit the waste in your household. You can save most of the packaging in your home to make a creation such as cereal boxes, egg cartons, kitchen roll holders, delivery boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt pots and anything else that you can think of. You could make absolutely anything with a little imagination. Use paints and other craft materials to really bring life to your model. Why don’t you #50ThingsTogeteher your creations to show us how creative you can be.
Baby (Under 1)
- Your babies may not be at a stage of making a junk modelling creation just yet, but one of the main positives of junk modelling is all the different textures and materials children can explore during. Save all your recycling and lay them all out on a blanket for your baby to explore all the different materials, babies love exploring and after all we all know children love a box!
Toddler (2 years)
- Why not theme your junk modelling around a book, for example ‘whatever next?’ Create your spaceship using a big box and let your child decorate the spaceship, using paints, adding milk bottle tops, tissue etc. put a colander on your heads for a helmet and off you go!
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- Provide your child with a range of recyclable materials and decorating resources, such as tape, glue, paints, pens. Just let their imagination do the rest. This is also great for problem solving skills as there will be lots of things that don’t quite go together, and they’ll have to think of different ways so they can!
50. Make your own breakfast
Cooking and self-independence is an important skill for a child to learn. If they are cooking or using sharp utensils, they would need the help of an adult but other than that, they could be completely in charge of marking their breakfast.
Baby (Under 1)
- Once your baby is 6 months, you’ll be embarking on the exciting journey of weaning! You can involve your baby in the food prep, and this might even help them to want to try the foods if they’ve watched it get made. If you were to have banana for breakfast or apple, you can show your baby the whole fruit and chop it with them on their highchair and they can see what their food looks like before it’s chopped!
Toddler (2 years)
- Your two-year-olds will be getting more and more independent now and they’ll want to do almost everything themselves! Why not let them pour their own cereal into the bowl, you pour the milk into a jug and they can pour it all over their breakfast themselves. It will give them a sense of achievement that they’ve done that independently. If you’re having toast, provide your child with a butter knife and the butter and let them butter their own toast, this promotes independence and their fine motor skills.
Pre-schooler (3-5 years)
- As your children get older, they may have mastered pouring their own cereal and milk. Why not try making pancakes together at the weekend when you have a bit more time. Explore the ingredients with your child, let them have a go at cracking the egg! (Always wash your hands after handling eggs). When they sit down to eat their stack of pancakes, they will feel a great sense of achievement.
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Page last reviewed: 01 February 2023