Boundless energy. Amazing curiosity. Giggles and smiles. These are precious years.
I absolutely loved age five and six with my son since he was growing by leaps and bounds at this age! He really took off with writing, reading, drawing, and Legos at age five! It was so exciting to watch him grow in so many ways at this time.
So are you looking for some fun at home winter activities for those early elementary school years during age five and six? I would highly recommend that you do more learning activities at this stage, but that is my teacher self talking!
While I will post some more structured activities here, don’t forget to do those spontaneous unstructured times where your child can continue to enjoy imaginative play. We find that spur of the moment unplanned activities are very enjoyable for our son, so don’t forget to NOT PLAN because sometimes in the mean time of not planning, a lot of fun will come your children’s way!
Here are some planned activities we have done from age five to age six during winter at home. Maybe, you can try some of them out, but don’t forget to not plan as well since that can also turn out well. Enjoy!
Have Conversations About Your Morals and Values
Yes, talking is an at home winter activity. One that people don’t do enough of with so many screens surrounding us each day so lets be reminded to just talk first! Lets be reminded to have those important conversations about our morals and values. Do you find enough time in your schedule to really talk and have a genuine and authentic conversation with your children? Lets make it a priority and add this one to one of our at home winter activities because it is so crucial!
We find our hope, our purpose, our morals, and our values in our faith in Christ. Being present and sharing your faith with your child is so important at this age as they build their morals and values. The most important work you will do will be within the walls of your home. Be sure to instill those moral and values to your kids. For us, it is Christianity, and we trust God to fulfill his purposes for our lives.
Make the Garage a Playzone!
I know not all of you have basements, so if you can, make the garage a playzone. I did this during the pandemic so we could feel like we were outside, but we would be shielded from the wind! We set up our Legos out here on tables. We also would paint out here and play basketball for hours. I even set up our hot tub in the garage (not kidding), so we could swim in the winter! As you can see, the hot tub was a lot of fun! I never made the temperature too high since I wanted my son to enjoy it safely. We put padding in the garage during this time as well, and I hung up large photo backdrops on the garage walls to make it more festive.
Take Advantage of All That Snow and Enjoy Homemade Hot Cocoa
It is really just the simple things in life that are worthwhile. It doesn’t take any planning to set up these activities. Sometimes, we are just blessed with these opportunities. Are you taking advantage of them?
We had the best sledding hill in our prior neighborhood. The neighborhood kids loved meeting up at the hill and having a good time. It was a blast going up and down the hill!
Keep That Inflatable Set Up In Your Basement
We loved this as the years went on! It didn’t matter how icy it was, we always had a place to get our energy out and have some fun!
Continue to Enjoy Drawing/Coloring/Painting/Crafting
Set Up Pastels and an Easel
I just got some pastels and easels from Michaels and thought we could try this out together. We enjoyed trying this out making some drawings. It is messy, so I put down a disposable table cloth over my table. Definitely worth it to try it out if you haven’t before.
Learn to Draw Using Kids Art Hub
At age five, my son really took to drawing thanks to Kids Art Hub. We did this for 10-15 minutes max on various days. I am not a very good drawer, so this amazing family gives step by step directions to kids so they can learn how to draw in a fun and easy way! I am very grateful to Kids Art Hub for giving my son a confidence to draw and be creative! After they draw, have them write about it. I would always make writing go hand in hand with drawing at this age to make it more enjoyable.
Have a Coloring Day
I am talking about an entire coloring day where you color for hours upon hours with a lunch break of course and then make books out of your coloring pages. We loved these days, and we would just staple our little books together of all of our coloring pieces. We got more inspired to do this after visiting The Crayola Factory (more on that in another blog article).
Play With Puzzles
This one was one of our favorite ones. It was nice since it also taught the different parts of the body!
Take Photos of All Those Masterpieces
At age five, we got our son his own little camera. This is the age when we really started taking photos of Legos we built, creations we made, and drawings we did. I ended up taking those photos and making a Shutterfly photo album of his creations. It’s enjoyable looking back at his creations he made in the photo album.
Keep on Playing With Those Legos
My son really took off at age five with building Legos. He absolutely loved it. He would spend all day long playing. This was since schools closed down, and he would quickly finish his work and have nothing left to do. I would try to give him around 4 hours worth of activities to do while I was teaching my 260 students online. Yes, it was challenging since he had nothing to do each day for around 4 hours. He would fill this with Legos, reading, writing, and playing. My husband and I would take turns spending time with him with structured activities I set up for him. We must have spent around 2,000 dollars on Legos at this time! (not kidding)
Get More Involved in Playing Instruments
At age four, my son started playing both the piano and violin with lessons. From age five-eight, he took off with playing these instruments at home. He would just go into our music room and play. Often, he wasn’t even reading notes, but he was playing a song he heard form a movie or on the radio. This playing of music was more spontaneous and by ear. He did start reading music at this time, but we also wanted him to be able to experiment with playing music by ear. Be sure to try out Piano Maestro App since it will help your child to play more easily when they start out!
Have Your Own Gingerbread Party
Host a Small Frosty the Snowman Party
At the age of five, we hosted a Frosty the Snowman party for his kindergarten friends and cousins for my son’s “sleep under party”. This occurred right before the pandemic started right before school closed (literally 2 1/2 months before). A sleep under party is when everyone comes in their pjs around 6:00, but then instead of sleeping over everyone leaves at 8:00. Just the way I like it! We gave the kids and parents breakfast for dinner with Greek Yogurt Pancakes and homemade crockpot hot cocoa which was absolutely amazing then showed them the Frosty the Snowman movie. It was definitely a fun experience and just took a little planning. I am happy I hosted it because who would have known that everything would have shut down shortly after this?
Host a Countdown to Noon (New Years Party)
We counted down to noon with a small little gingerbread making party this year with the cousins. It was fun and enjoyable! I made it pretty easy besides the balloon garland which took a little more time.
Host a Valentines Day Kid Party
This was just another excuse to get cousins and friends together to enjoy some new memories together! I know they enjoyed getting together and playing after a few long months of winter. Here are some activities I did for that time hosting.
Exercise Together Using the Mirror
The Mirror allowed me to workout at home when I was teaching from home during the pandemic. I could do a workout before and after teaching my classes which was very convenient, and now that gyms have been reopened for a while, I still enjoy using it on a weekly basis. I enjoy the “Family Fun” workouts on it to do with my son.
Continue Baking Together
Continue Making Those Forts
My son really enjoyed his camping bed fort which we had up during this phase. He would play in it for hours, and it made him feel more secure and safe in his bedroom as he started to gain more independence.