Heidi Scrimgeour
The best toys for five-year-olds are items that promote imaginative play and games that spark their creativity.
Five is a brilliant age. If you've got a five-year-old on your hands, they are probably full of personality with their own likes and dislikes, interests, character quirks and a seemingly neverending amount of energy. So the best toys for this age group are games that promote all of the above. It's worth keeping this in mind if you're thinking ahead and browsing for the top Christmas toys for your little one, too. Also screen-only toys can be a winner, like the popular audio boxes Yoto or Tonie (though, be sure to check out our Yoto Vs Tonie to get a real breakdown.)
"Children benefit from outdoor and indoor physical play to help build motor skills, balance, and agility," Dr. Maria Shaheen, senior director of early childhood education at Primrose Schools says: "Younger children (ages 5 to 6) are working on continuing to build their coordination and balancing skills." So toys that support hopping, jumping, skipping, and balancing on one foot are a great addition. "Jumping through hula hoops, jump ropes, balance beams, and hopscotch are simple ways to accomplish these developmental goals," Dr. Shaheen explains.
At the age of five, most children have also just started school and are learning to read and write. So educational toys books that help build towards this stage or mud kitchens (see our mud kitchen ideas here if you're looking for inspiration) are a good choice. Plus, games that help teach kids the rules of sportsmanship are handy to have. "Large balls such as beach balls are a good way to begin to learn to catch and progressively moving to smaller balls as they become more skilled can help build their hand-eye coordination," Dr. Shaheen adds.
To find the best toys for five-year-olds, do keep scrolling. We enlisted the help of some testers to find the top toys for this age group. From a marble run to a Melissa and Doug set, there's something for everybody.
Best toys for 5-year-olds: our consumer editor's top picks
All the products in our roundup have been selected because they were a big hit with our panel of five-year-old testers. However, one standout was the Mega Marble Run from Galt Toys, which gives creative kids the chance to build everything from simple marble runs to complex, winding structures. Our tester said this was "one of my favourite toys", and added that it was "so much fun for adults too".
Another big hit was the Happy Cube Pro 6-Pack, which won points for not just being fun and challenging, but affordable too. Our tester said the cubes were a really purse-friendly buy and something she would buy for other children too.
If you're looking to buy imaginative games your child can play with other kids, then the word and picture rhyming game Orchard Toys Slimy Rhymes went down a treat with our testers. "This is an ideal way to have some fun as your children practice words and sentences while being a little bit silly, and my son loved it," our tester revealed. "It’s compact and easy to transport, so would make an ideal travel game.”
Best toys for 5 year olds - how we tested them
We enlisted a panel of five-year-old testers to put the toys in our roundup to the test, rating them on everything from how fun they were to use to whether they’d buy them again. All the toys we’ve included are designed to have your child returning to them again and again, with many becoming family favourites, not just with our testers, but with their parents too. In our quest to find the best toys for five-year-olds, we made sure to include toys across a range of budgets and types to appeal to even the fussiest of five-year-olds.
What are the best toys for 5 year olds to promote creativity?
According to Dr. Shaheen children of all ages will benefit from toys and materials that promote creativity. ‘Having a plethora of art materials, such as paint brushes, scissors with textured edges, different types of coloring and drawing tools, colored pencils, crayons, markers, a variety of paints, and paper in a wide range of colors, available at all times will help your child learn how to represent their ideas visually,' Dr. Shaheen explains. ‘Young children often use the arts as a way to express their ideas and work through challenging problems, so taking time to explore how each type of art material works can help build your child’s creative repertoire.'
While closed-ended art materials, like coloring books and craft kits can also help expand and spark creativity. ‘Coloring is a relaxing activity and mimics a meditative state,’ Dr. Shaheen adds. ‘This type of activity can help increase creativity and innovation (this is precisely why you see so many adult coloring books out there now!) Craft kits typically have one way to put materials together; however, the simple act of creating a wide range of structures can help increase ideas for later use in open-ended art activities or design challenges.’
While you're looking for the best toys for five-year-olds, you might also be interested in the best toys for four-years-olds, the best toys for six-year-olds. Plus, we've also got a guide on easy crafts for kids to help keep them entertained after school and on the weekends.
