Five-year-old boy runs gleefully through the water, sporting a big smile. There is lots to look forward to when your child turns 5.

Fantastic 5! What to Expect with Your Child This Year

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  • 4-year-old girl stacks colored blocks on a table. Block stacking is one simple activity that can help your child strengthen their pattern recognition skills.

    Strengthen Your Child's Pattern Recognition Skills with These Easy Activities

    Pattern recognition is an important cognitive skill that helps children to develop their critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical abilities. It enables them to make sense of the world around them and recognize the underlying structures and relationships between different objects and ideas. Simple activities can be done at home to help strengthen a child's pattern recognition skills.

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  • 5-Year-Old boy lies on the ground with his eyes closed, a smile on his face, and his hands behind his head. Teaching your child to keep a "calm body" is a great way to set them of for success in the area of self-regulation.

    Help Your Child Keep a "Calm Body" with a Few, Simple Strategies

    Children often find it challenging to keep their energy levels in check and stay calm. With all the excitement and stimulation around them, it's no wonder they sometimes have trouble settling down.

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  • 5-year-old boy cuddles with his favorite stuffed monkey as he drifts off to sleep. Having a good bedtime routine is vital to ensuring a quality night of rest and a productive morning the next day.

    What Should a 5-Year-Old's Bedtime Routine Look Like?

    With their long, busy days at school and all the learning and playing they're doing throughout the day, your 5-year-old is bound to be quite tired by the time bedtime rolls around. And this is great! A full day of activities followed by a full night of quality sleep is just what a young body and mind need.

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  • A young boy and girl walk down a trail with their arms around each others' shoulders. Teaching your child about what friendship should feel like will help them have healthy boundaries and positive social interactions.

    Teaching Your Child What Friendship Should Feel Like

    As your child enters school, they will be surrounded by plenty of opportunities to develop new and exciting friendships. And while they're sure to have fun, there may be some situations in which they may be confronted by unhealthy behaviors from others and boundary pushing. One of the most important things we can do for our children is to help them develop healthy relationships. A crucial part of this is teaching them what friendship should feel like. Friendship is a fundamental aspect of a child's development and has a significant impact on their self-esteem, social skills, and emotional well-being.

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  • A colorful children's abacus sits on a table. There are many fun ways to practice addition and subtraction with your kindergartener.

    Easy Addition & Subtraction Games for Kindergarteners

    Your kindergartener will begin learning about basic addition and subtraction within 10 this year. While it can be a challenging task for many, these mathematical concepts can be easily mastered when practiced through interactive and engaging activities.

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  • A kindergartener's hand holds a crayon while coloring a picture at a desk. As your child starts school, it's important to set up a consistent after-school routine that reinforces the concepts that they're learning in the classroom.

    5 Steps to the Perfect After-School Routine

    Your 5-year-old has likely just started school and is learning all sorts of new things, from their letters to how to sit at a desk for extended periods of time. They may also start getting homework for the first time. As a parent, it's your job to support them in their learning journey and reinforce these concepts at home. A strong after-school routine will help them to not only solidify what they've learned, but will also provide the structure and organization that they will need to be successful students and adults in the future.

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  • 5-year-old boy walks in nature alone, holding up an autumn leaf. By this age, children should be able to perform several self-care skills independently.

    What Self-Care Skills Should My Child Have at 5 Years Old?

    Five is a big year, as many children will be starting school for the first time! With this huge milestone looming close, now may be a good time to reflect on the self-care skills that your child has and work on those that they haven't yet mastered. Kindergarten teachers often refer to a child's ability to do things independently as being a big factor in their success in the classroom. In fact, being able to take care of themselves independently can really have an impact on their self-esteem. Little ones who can dress and groom themselves, know where to find items they need, and can clean up after themselves beam with pride when they show the adults in their lives all they can do!

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  • A pair of child's hands trace alphabet letters. Tracing alphabet letters while saying the letter's name and sound is a practice that will help your child solidify this skill if done daily.

    Solidify Your Child's Knowledge of the Alphabet with This Powerful Practice

    Your 5-year-old is likely learning their alphabet this year in school, and though most will take to identifying their letters and letter sounds gradually, some children need a bit of extra practice to really solidify this concept. If you find that your child is having trouble memorizing their letter names and sounds, try mixing tactile, visual, and auditory learning through this powerful, daily practice. Be sure to stay consistent to garner results in no time!

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  • Three child's stuffed animals lie side by side, neatly tucked in with a blanket. Creating a serene, organized environment for your toddler is helpful for fostering independence.

    Create a Serene & Organized Environment That Will Foster Independence

    Creating a serene and organized environment for your child is one of the most effective ways to foster independence in them. When a child has a clean, structured, and orderly environment, they are more likely to develop good habits, become more responsible, and feel more in control of their surroundings.

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  • 6-year-old daughter and her father hug, both with big smiles on their faces. There are several ways to fill your child's emotional bucket to ensure that they are growing up healthy and happy.

    6 Ways to Fill Your Child's Emotional Bucket

    With so much on our minds and busy, modern schedules, it can be easy for adults to get wrapped up in just getting through the day. Often, if our little ones are clean, fed, and safe we feel that we've done our duty and can send them off to play. And while these things are important and children should be able to entertain themselves, it's important that we take the time to fill our little ones' emotional buckets to ensure that they are growing up feeling happy, healthy, secure, and confident. Make it a point to spend some real, distraction-free time with your child each day.

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  • A pair of child's hands hold a pencil while writing on a piece of paper at a desk covered in school supplies

    See if Your Child is on Track with This Kindergarten Writing Skills Checklist

    Kindergarten is a time of rapid development and academic progress. From reading simple words to executing life-skills, like packing up their backpack and cleaning their desk, you’ll be blown away by how much your child has grown in a single year.

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  • Two sets of hands hold cell phones, their owners completely engrossed by the screen

    Is My Own Screen Time Affecting My Children?

    The science behind the effects of screen time on developing minds is well known to most parents. But does adult screen time affect children, as well? While our brains may be fully developed, our screen time can still be detrimental. When parents are overly absorbed by their technology, they tune-out what’s going on around them.

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