Are you looking to buy a present for a 5 year old? Well this gift guide has you covered. Whether you want a game they can play with siblings, an activity they can focus on alone or something you can do as a family there are lots of great gift ideas.
***Disclosure: This guide contains a combination of presents I have bought myself, items I have requested for the purpose of including in this guide and there are some affiliate links to (where I might make a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking through at no extra cost for you). The gifts I suggest I think will make a 5 year old very happy to receive. You might also want to check out great board games for 6 year olds.***
Inspiring Gifts For 5 Year Olds
Get Musical with Digital Drumsticks
When it comes to instruments at age 5 the louder the better, or at least that's what the ones I know think. What could be louder or bigger than a drum set? Well I’m not about to suggest you buy one of those (unless maybe you have a shed at the end of a really long garden), but these digital drumsticks are a fun alternative. You will either love them as much as the 5 year old or hate them with a passion, probably depending on how much rhythm the child has. The drumsticks make the noises of drums or cymbals as you play them in the air, or you can hit something soft like a bed or cushion. You can choose to play to the backing music, play alone or to any music on the radio. Playing to music might help to develop that rhythm though. I have had a go with these and I think they are great fun and a pretty good arm work out. Actually maybe these should have gone into my gift guide for adults, they are far too much fun for children.
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| Digital Drumsticks are so much fun to play with |
Get Planting with A Kid's Dinosaur Terrarium
Encouraging children to look after plants is a great early dose of responsibility. A terrarium is a good all year round option which they can personalise before taking care of it. The Urban Botanist has a range of beautiful terrariums, ecospheres and more aimed at adults as well as a selection for children. This dinosaur terrarium set comes with a plastic bowl, bright colourful stones, a couple of succulent plants, plastic dinosaur and tree and (optional) fairy lights. Children will enjoy setting it all up and the succulents should be resilient enough that they wont mind if they aren’t watered regularly.
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| A fun Kid's Terrarium by The Urban Botanist |
Get Drawing with Let’s Draw Dinosaurs
I am a big fan of process art, but some children can start to get frustrated that their creations don’t look like what they want them to look like. Not everyone can look at something and create a representation, for lots of us the answer is learning how to draw. Let’s Draw Dinosaurs Step By Step (affiliate link) is one of the many books out there that aim to give children a helping hand and inspiration to draw. The end results from this book are cartoon like rather than accurate representations, but they will start to be manageable for 5 year olds as their pencil control develops. I’ve had a go at a few and I probably need a little more practice, but I had fun. This book is currently free on the Amazon Fire for Kids Unlimited subscription which you can get a free trial of here (affiliate link).
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| Let's Draw Dinosaurs is great for children developing pen control |
Get Sticking with Holographic Stickers
With the Buzzing Stickerz set children can create 180 holographic and metallic stickers. Inside the box there are 8 sheets of foam with precut shapes to push out eg hearts, animals, robots and flowers. The foam is covered on both sides with adhesive and a layer of paper. If you peel of the paper on one side (a piece at a time) you can stick the holographic foil to it. Children can choose to go for simple designs or use the stencils included to create more detail. Recommended for age 4 an upwards.
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| Create metallic stickers with holographic designs |
Get Motivated with an Inspiring Quote Print
We’re Going On A Bear Hunt is a hugely popular children’s book which has the great message that sometimes you just have to go through the tough stuff. This stylish print from Ink & Drop is inspired by the book and will look pretty cool hanging in any bedroom. You can buy them in frames, but I love the canvas print option with magnetic hanging rail because it is easy to put up and has no glass to worry about getting broken or heavy frame to fall on over enthusiastic heads who might like to poke it (or is that just my children).
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| Inspiration and personality |
Get Inspired with How To Spot An Artist
The How To Spot An Artist book by Danielle Krysa at Prestel Publishing explains what an artist is and what is art in a fun way. It aims to explain that anyone can be an artist and that “art” doesn’t need to look any specific way inspiring the reader (or the being read to) that they are an artist and they too can create art in anyway they want. There are lots of fun images and a large font (mostly on white backgrounds) making it easy to read. Just don’t be surprised if it gets the gift receiver wanting to craft or paint straight away.
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| How To Spot An Artist |
Get Adventuring with this Activity Tin
This is a really lovely personalised gift from Proper Goose. The small tin says "Adventure Tokens" and can be personalised with a name or message of your choice on. Inside there are 10 pieces of wood which you can choose the 10 activity ideas to be printed on. This is a great present which can be used for promises of activities to do which children can cash in or for inspiration when children are bored. There are similar tins with different types of token which are also lovely.
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| Family Time Adventure Tokens |
Gift Ideas To Keep 5 Year Olds Entertained
Act Out Scenes with Love Monster Figurines
Are you familiar with Love Monster? Originally a book, the TV series was launched on CBeebies this year and we love it. It’s about the only monster in Fluffytown otherwise filled with cute baby animals, don't go on appearances though because he's rather nice. These Love Monster figurines from Golden Bear are solid and a good size for play by 5 year olds without feeling babyish, but they are large enough that they are actually suitable from 18 months making them great for families with younger siblings. |
| Love Monster Figurines |
Listen Up With Headphones
Every parent needs a break at times and a pair of headphones combined with a music player or tablet is a great way to do this in a way that children will love too. There is always the worry that children will listen to music too loudly and harm their hearing so a pair of headphones designed for children with limited volume level is a good compromise. These volume limited headphones from Planet Buddies have so many good features: they come in 100% recyclable packaging (using soy based inks), they have a window on each side where children can put their choice of 24 animal character cards (some are precoloured and some ready to colour in with the included crayons), they have an adjustable headband and they fold up and fit in a fabric carry bag.
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| Planet Buddies Headphone with volume limiting control |
Practice Those New Writing Skills With Smiggle
Smiggle has a reputation for fun stationery designs which are hugely popular with children. A selection of their products make a great gift and I’m sure Father Christmas puts them in lots of stockings too. The scented felt tips are one of my favourites of their products and these Dinosaur ones even have the names of different dinos on them. There is lots of choice for lovers of mermaids, unicorns and anything cute so it’s worth visiting a store or checking out the Smiggle website where they have lots of great offers.
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| Dinosaur scented markers, fluffy sand with a pug in it, colour change pencil case, Unicorn Universe erase and notebook all from Smiggle |
Learn with Geomag Magicubes
5 year olds have just started school so whether they are at the early stages of letter and number recognition, starting to blend or practising spellings a gift which supports them to do these activities in a fun way is a great present. As a long time fans of Geomag sets I thought the Magiccube Word Building and Maths Building sets (affiliate links) were a great idea. In each pack you get magnetic "clips" and a set of 16 of the magnetic blocks which are great on their own because they stack nicely and can build different shapes which aren't possible with normal building blocks.
On some of the Word Building magnets there are images to encourage children to spell those words. They are all lowercase letters and the consonants and vowels are different colours. There are also accented letters if children are learning a language other than English.
The Maths Building set has magnets showing numbers as well as mathematical symbols. These thin magnets attach to the blocks easily, but aren’t very firm so can get knocked off. You could also use them on the fridge or other magnetic surface. We have had Geomag blocks for around 4 years and they are still popular with all my children.
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| Magicube Word and Maths Building sets from Geomag appeal to a wide age range |
Put The World Back Together with Animals of the World Jigsaw
This is a gorgeous jigsaw puzzle from Puzzle Crazy which will help children learn more about the world. One of the lovely things about Puzzle Crazy is they work with a variety of artists on their jigsaws and they get £5 for any of their jigsaws which are sold. This design is by Kay Dawson and it is available in 6 different sizes. The pieces are made from recycled card and come in a resealable plastic bag inside a slimline cardboard box. An image of the completed design is on both the inside and outside of the box. All the Puzzle Crazy jigsaw puzzle range is printed and made in the UK.
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| A jigsaw with an artists impression of the world with animals on it |
Get Silly With Burping Bobby
Burps and farts: 5 year olds seem to be at an age when they find them hilarious so a game where the hippo actually burps is going to be a hit. In the Burping Bobby game from Goliath Games (affiliate link) players take it in turns to pick up a food token and guessing what is on it. If they guess correctly they keep the token and the earn the number of points stated on it, if they guess wrongly they have to feed the token to Bobby and wind the handle the number of times the token says. The game is over when Bobby burps (letting out a spray of water lit green through a light in his mouth). Whoever made him burp loses their highest value token. Whoever has the most points after the burp wins. The game is suitable for 2 to 4 players aged 4 and upwards, requires 3 AAA batteries.
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| A fun game where the hippo actually burps |
Play Football Inside with Air Ball
This flat ball has fans inside it which helps it to hover slightly off the floor. The best thing about the Air Ball is it stays at floor level rather than being kicked up in the air like normal balls, making it safer to play inside. A gift for football lovers who want to play whatever the weather. Takes 4 AA batteries.
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| Air Ball makes playing football inside a safer option |
Plan Roads with Puzzle Cars
Each Puzzle Cars set comes with a vehicle and a set of track you can put together in various arrangements. The track has a groove running across all 8 jigsaw pieces which they will need to assemble to make sure there is a continuous road for the vehicle to go on, but there are multiple ways it can go together. The City of London Puzzle Cars set has a red bus which can drive past various London landmarks. Once you put the (included) AAA battery in and place it on the track it whizzes around the path made super fast. The set also contains 4 road signs and 2 traffic cones for additional playability.
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| City of London Puzzle Cars Set |
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| Pin this Gift Guide for 5 year olds for later |
Gift Guide for Toddlers & Preschoolers
Great presents for 1, 2, 3 and 4 year olds
Gift guide for 6 to 10 year olds
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