Get ready for giggles and grins with these 20 simple and oh-so-fun at-home activities for 5-month-olds!
5-Month-Old Babies
As your baby reaches the 5-month mark, you may notice exciting developments in their physical, cognitive, and social abilities. At this age, babies are becoming more alert, curious, and interested in exploring the world around them. As a parent or caregiver, you play a crucial role in supporting their growth and development through engaging activities. In this blog post, we will discuss what 5-month-old babies are capable of doing, highlight important developmental milestones, and provide 20 fun and creative ideas for activities you can do at home to stimulate your baby’s senses and promote their development.
Developmental Milestones for 5-Month-Olds
At 5 months old, your baby is likely becoming more active and developing new skills. Here are some key developmental milestones that your baby may reach around this age:
- Improved head control: Your baby can hold their head steady when sitting with support and may start attempting to lift their head while lying on their tummy.
- Increased muscle strength: Your baby may start pushing up with their arms during tummy time and may even roll from tummy to back or back to tummy.
- Hand-eye coordination: Your baby may begin to reach for and grab objects with their hands, transferring them from one hand to the other.
- Babbling and cooing: Your baby may start making more vocalizations, such as babbling and cooing, to communicate and express themselves.
- Social awareness: Your baby may start to show interest in faces, smile at familiar people, and respond to sounds and voices by turning their head towards them.
With these milestones in mind, here are 20 fun and creative activities you can do at home with your 5-month-old baby to promote their development and have fun together.
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Engaging Activities for 5-Month-Olds
- Tummy Time Fun: Place your baby on their tummy on a soft surface and surround them with colorful toys to encourage them to lift their head and reach for the toys.
- Sensory Play: Create a sensory basket with different textures, such as soft fabrics, crinkly toys, and smooth toys, for your baby to explore with their hands and mouth.
- Mirror Play: Hold your baby in front of a mirror and make funny faces or sing songs to encourage them to focus on their reflection and practice tracking movements.
- Peekaboo: Play peekaboo with a soft blanket or cloth to help your baby develop object permanence and stimulate their sense of touch and sight.
- Bubble Time: Blow bubbles and watch your baby’s eyes light up as they track the bubbles with their eyes and try to reach out for them.
- Baby Massage: Give your baby a gentle massage using baby-safe oil, which can promote bonding, relaxation, and body awareness.
- Dance Party: Play some soft music and dance with your baby in your arms or in a baby carrier, providing them with gentle movements and rhythm.
- Sensory Bottles: Create sensory bottles filled with colorful beads, water, or other safe materials, and let your baby explore them with their hands and eyes.
- Water Play: Place your baby in a baby bathtub or a shallow basin of water and let them splash and play with their hands and feet under your supervision.
- High Contrast Cards: Show your baby high contrast cards or pictures with bold black and white patterns to stimulate their visual development.
More Engaging Activities for 5-Month-Olds
- Baby Giggles: Use tickles, raspberries, or funny faces to elicit giggles and laughter from your baby, promoting social interaction and bonding.
- Hand and Footprint Art: Dip your baby’s hands or feet in baby-safe paint and create cute hand or footprint art on paper or canvas.
- Baby Gym: Set up a simple baby gym with a play mat, toys, and a small mirror for your baby to explore and play with.
- Baby Book Time: Read board books with simple pictures and textures for your baby to touch and explore with their hands and mouth.
- Bubble Wrap Play: Place a sheet of bubble wrap on the floor and let your baby kick, crawl, or roll over it to experience the sensory sensation of popping bubbles.
- Nursery Rhymes: Sing nursery rhymes or lullabies to your baby, providing auditory stimulation and language development opportunities.
- Baby Ball Play: Roll or toss soft and lightweight balls to your baby, encouraging them to reach for and grasp the balls, promoting hand-eye coordination.
- Baby Sensory Cards: Create simple sensory cards with different textures, such as fur, satin, or bumpy paper, and let your baby touch and explore them.
Remember to always consider your baby’s safety and developmental stage when planning activities. Supervise closely and use age-appropriate materials and toys. Enjoy the precious moments of playtime and exploration with your 5-month-old baby! Happy playing!
Disclaimer: Please consult with your pediatrician or healthcare provider before starting any new activities with your baby to ensure their safety and well-being. Always follow appropriate safety guidelines and age recommendations for toys and activities.
Age Suitability
These at home activities are good for babies aged 5-months-olds and up.
Mess Level
The mess level for these activities for 5-month-olds varies.
Difficulty to Create Activities for 5-Month-Olds
Varies.
Skills Developed for Activities for 5-Month-Olds
Visual tracking, Body awareness, Reaching, grasping & eye hand coordination, fine motor skills, gross motor skills.
Toddler and Preschooler Curriculums, Books & TV Show!
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles that show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 airs in the summer of 2023! We were also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
In season 2, we add new kinds of crafts like STEAM crafts and slime!
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
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