As a parent, you may be wondering what are the best educational toys for your 5-year-old child. Educational toys can help your child learn fundamental skills and develop their problem-solving abilities, creativity, and fine motor skills. Some of the most popular educational toys for 5-year-olds include blocks, puzzles, and board games.
The right educational toy can capture your child’s imagination, stimulate their body, and even prepare them for school. As your child grows from toddler to older kid, their interests may change and evolve. At 5 years old, your child is likely to have developed their interests and become more aware of them. So, it’s important to choose toys that align with their interests and help them continue to learn and grow.
Our Top Picks
- Best Building Toys
- Best Creativity Toys
- Best Interactive Toys
- Best Montessori Toys
In This Article
HappyBabyHub’s Best Educational Toys For 5-Year-Olds Picks
42 Piece Tegu Magnetic Wooden Block Set
- The wood blocks are well-cut and painted
- The wheels add more fun
- It teaches about magnets at a young age
- Get cleaned up relatively quickly because they’re magnetic
- The wood blocks only stick to each other in certain ways
Tegu Blocks have taken the traditional wooden block to a whole new level of fun and excitement! With their magical magnetic properties, these blocks are sure to amaze and delight your 5-year-old child.
The moment two blocks click-clack together, the magic of the mystery magnet is unleashed, opening up a world of Boundless Play! And with the cleverly inserted magnets in each block, the possibilities for defying gravity and exploring new horizons are endless!
Thames & Kosmos Kids First: Robot Safari
- Endless hours of play
- Can be put in a pouch and placed in a bag for storage
- Great parent-child activity
- Easy to assemble
- The parts are sometimes hard to connect due to their size
This awesome engineering kit is perfect for children aged five and up who are just starting their mechanical engineering journey. With this kit, they can make a variety of delightful and motorized robotic creatures.
The 32-page narrative is accompanied by stunning illustrations and tells the story of Remus, the family’s robotic teddy bear, who goes on an exciting safari adventure after getting separated from his family. During his trip, Remus meets eight distinct robotic creatures, including a polar bear, a cat, a narwhal, a crab, a fox, a newborn llama, a unicorn, and a sea otter.
Kids can learn how each of the robots uses mechanical components and battery-powered motors to move differently by building replicas of them and playing with them while they read the novel.
Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set
- Durable
- Excellent play value
- Easy to clean up and store
- The magnets are completely enclosed in plastic and can’t come out
- Not cheap
Looking for a challenging educational toy that will inspire your 5-year-old’s imagination and develop their math, science, and spatial skills? This premium set includes 100 vibrant and transparent shapes, featuring 4 large squares, 50 little squares, 20 equilateral triangles, 11 right triangles, and 15 Isosceles triangles.
With Magna-Tiles, the possibilities for imaginative play are endless! Your child will love building structures, creatures, and shapes of all kinds. And you can rest assured that this set is both strong and long-lasting, with a base measurement of 3 inches for each shape.
Fat Brain Toys Squigz Starter Set
- Stick to almost every surface
- Encourage the development of reach and grasp skills
- Colors are bright to keep attention and interest
- Easy to play with
- The suction can be strong sometimes
Squigz is a unique and playful species that loves to experiment and defy gravity by sticking to various surfaces like windows, bathtubs, and lockers. These fascinating creatures can connect to any solid, non-porous surface and to each other, resulting in endless possibilities for creative play.
Once they’re stuck, they’re stuck, and the satisfying “POP” sound when they’re pulled apart is sure to bring a smile to your face. Their ability to stick to surfaces and each other makes them a great tool for developing fine motor skills, problem-solving, and spatial reasoning for your 5-year-old.
PLUS PLUS – Open Play Set
- Good for fine motor skills
- Simple concept – no instructions or skills needed
- Good for unconstrained imaginative, 3D creations
- Compact and light
- Pieces don’t quickly hold together very well, so it still needs to be handled gently
With just one simple shape, the possibilities are endless, and the entertainment is never-ending. Each piece connects seamlessly with the next, allowing your 5-year-old’s imagination to run wild and create intricate 3D structures or colorful flat mosaics. And, believe it or not, even curves are possible with Plus-Plus’s unique design!
Not only is Plus-Plus a blast to play with, but it’s also an excellent STEM toy that can help develop focus, patience, and fine motor skills, as well as unleash creativity and imagination. This 600-piece set features a variety of basic colors like red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and purple, and it’s sure to provide endless hours of building and creating.
Learning Resources Botley The Coding Robot Activity Set
- Easy to set up
- Adorable, endearing beeps and noises
- Comes with a set of cards so kids can put the “moves” in order to help with the coding
- The booklet has 10 coding activities (in increasing difficulty) to get kids started on coding
- Not a great toy for multiple children to play with at once
Botley is designed to teach kids as young as 5 the basics of coding in an engaging and accessible way. But that’s not all – Botley’s sophisticated features also make him a great tool for older kids to continue learning and growing with.
Botley is easy to use right out of the box, and best of all, he’s completely screen-free. That means your child can start coding with Botley in no time without the need for a phone or tablet. With 40 different capabilities and the ability to program him for up to 80 steps, the possibilities for learning and play are endless!
But that’s just the beginning. Botley can also be programmed to avoid obstacles using if/then logic and loop instructions, and even has a black-line follow mode. And with secret features waiting to be unlocked, your child will never tire of playing and learning with Botley.
CoolToys Monkey Balance
- Easy to see from a distance
- Balance has adjustable trim
- Well made
- Comes with cards that have adding problems they can solve
- The monkeys are quite small
Monkey Balance is a fun and exciting game that will help your 5-year-old learn the basics of addition and subtraction in a playful way! Simply pick a card, and then place the correct number of monkeys on one side of the scale, and the corresponding number on the other side.
With 64 pieces included, like 19 adorable monkeys, digits 1 through 10, 30 double-sided cards, a monkey scale, a base, two scale pans, and an easy-to-follow instruction sheet, Monkey Balance improves memory, encourages collaborative play, and develops fine motor skills. The colorful and cute graphics will attract the attention of the whole family!
HahaGift Matching Letter
- A fun way to learn sight words
- Helps to relate the word with the image
- Great way to make learning fun
- Easy to travel with
- Not the sturdiest
With 30 cards featuring 60 different words, 10 letter cubes, and a tray, this game is perfect for 5-year-olds learning their letters, object identification, spelling, and word formation.
Playing this game can also help improve children’s cognition, memory, strategic thinking, and eye-hand coordination, all while keeping them engaged and curious. And with simple rules and gameplay, preschoolers through kindergarten-aged children can easily join in the fun.
Challenge your child to letter matching, letter finding, word formation from memory, and spelling competitions with siblings. This game is a fantastic way to prepare your child for their kindergarten vocabulary exam while still having fun.
Learning Resources Beaker Creatures
- Fun experiment
- Keep kids entertained
- You hatch a small creature
- Has other activities to do with unit
- Only 2 creatures included
With the Beaker Creatures Super Lab, your 5-year-old can explore the wonders of science and experiment with their own reactions.
Simply insert one of the two REACTOR pods included in the set into the central chamber, fill it with water using the two Hydro plungers, and watch as the reaction unfolds before your eyes. When it’s finished, kids can remove their beaker creature collections and begin categorizing the different species they’ve discovered.
This two-piece lab kit comes equipped with everything kids need to conduct their own real-world science experiments, including tools and instructions inspired by the creatures and their planets of origin.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Mega Fossil and Gemstone Dig Kits
- The gems are beautifully polished making them much more intriguing to a 5-year-old
- It also comes with a booklet that tells all about the pieces that are dug out
- Most of the words are simple enough that a newly-reading child can get through it
- Keeps children busy for long periods of time
- The project isn’t something that you can get done in 20 minutes. It’s perfect to teach that patience gives rewards
Get ready for an exciting journey of discovery with this extra-large dig brick containing 20 dazzling gemstones and fossil specimens! This educational activity is sure to become a favorite for your 5-year-old, as they uncover real treasures buried within. With each specimen being genuine, this digging kit is truly remarkable, as it allows children to discover diamonds and fossils that are millions of years old! This National Geographic science set includes everything your child needs to dig like a pro, including a chisel, brush, and magnifying lens.
ThinkFun Rush Hour Traffic Jam Brain Game
- Fun and enjoyable for all ages
- Challenging really gets your child’s brain engaged
- Great quality
- Compact and the cards can be stowed away in a sliding compartment on the side of the board
- It is a bit loud when you move around the cars
Featuring 40 tasks that range in difficulty from easy to hard, Rush Hour is an excellent educational toy for 5-year-olds who love to engage in cerebral games and tricky endeavors. With high-quality parts and an easy-to-understand instruction booklet, your child can start playing Rush Hour straight out of the box!
Rush Hour is designed to foster critical thinking skills. As your child progress through the game’s challenges, they’ll sharpen their logical reasoning and critical thinking abilities through engaging gameplay.
Crayola Inspiration Art Case Coloring Set
- This has markers, colored pencils & crayons in an adorable sturdy case
- Many options for creative expression
- Great variety of art tools
- Great durability
- This is heavy and is not for constant lugging around.
This incredible kit is packed with hundreds of crayons, pencils, markers, and sheets of drawing paper, all neatly organized in a gorgeous pink carrying case. With this art case, your 5-year-old can take their creativity with them wherever they go. Whether they’re at home or on the go, they’ll have access to an exciting art studio filled with magical mermaids, grand castles, and stunning unicorns.
How To Choose Educational Toys For 5-Year-Olds?
- Interests: If a child has any particular interests at age 5, they are typically straightforward to identify. They could be interested in popular figures like princesses and superheroes. Look for items that appeal to their interests, such as an activity book with a particular subject or a ball with their favorite superhero or character shown on it.
- Purpose: Select toys that address a range of abilities and subject matter. The importance of toys that encourage the development of athletic and creative abilities is equal to that of toys that emphasize literacy.
- Safety: Choking dangers are no longer a major issue after your child reaches the age of five unless you also live with smaller children. Now you should search for toys that are devoid of possibly poisonous substances and won’t shatter into hazardous fragments (1).
- Value: At this age, children are frequently starting to read and write, and they are typically quite enthusiastic about it. So, activity books or other activities or toys that play into this are likely to keep them occupied. Any game or item that encourages children to be active will undoubtedly be well-liked.
- Milestone: Although developmental milestones are generally well-defined throughout the first five years of life, this age group’s milestones can be more difficult to discern. Around the age of five, kids start to become more aware of items that adults frequently use, such as money. Additionally, children begin to extend their oral literacy abilities at this age (2).
What Should A 5-Year-Old Be Learning?
- Use a pencil to replicate simple shapes and colors (3)
- Can create more lifelike drawings, such as people with heads that have eyes, mouths, and noses, and bodies with arms and legs
- Your child can communicate more successfully by using and comprehending positional vocabulary
- Even though they won’t be able to estimate prices precisely, your kids will start to understand which banknotes and coins are which
- Your child may use their newly acquired counting and fine motor abilities to stack multiple blocks in response to a request
- They love to be read to and do pretend readings from books
What Do 5-Year-Olds Like To Play With?
Balls, dolls, puzzles, and toy vehicles are among the favorite toys for 5-year-olds. At this age, a lot of kids want to pretend to be their favorite book or movie characters when playing make-believe. Additionally, playground equipment and outdoor activities are popular since many 5-year-olds like being active and participating in physical activity.
What Is Considered An Educational Toy?
An educational toy is any kind of toy that helps a child learn new skills or knowledge. This could include things like building toys, learning games, puzzles, etc. Basically, any toy that helps a child develop in some way could be considered an educational toy.
How Much Play Should A 5-Year-Old Have?
Young children should engage in age-appropriate play because it promotes their physical, mental, and emotional growth. The National Association for the Education of Young Children states that 5-year-olds should play for around three hours every day. This might involve both active and quiet activities, both indoors and outside.
How Many Toys Should A 5-Year-Old Have?
Every child is unique and will have varied preferences for toys. While some kids could be happy with a small number of toys, others might desire a bigger assortment. Generally speaking, it is advised that parents make an effort to give their kids a range of toys that cater to various styles of play, such as active toys, creative toys, and educational toys.
It may seem counterintuitive, but according to studies conducted on toddlers, fewer toys can actually encourage more focused, imaginative, and creative play for longer periods of time. It turns out that when children have fewer toys to play with, they are forced to use their imagination and creativity to make the most of what they have (4).
