11 Best Toys for 5-Year-Olds 2022 (2024)

Calling all retro toy lovers: Lite Brite is still around, and there’s a reason why. Kids let their creativity run wild with this light up toy, creating beautiful images with colorful translucent pegs that allow backlit illumination to show through. Using predesigned templates or punching in pegs freehand, your child can play for hours with this new and improved version of the original, which has a larger screen and more pegs.

Heads up

Some say the stand needs to be readjusted often.

Specs

• 13 x 2 x 11 inches
• 0.634 ounces
• Recommended for age 4 and up
• 2 AA batteries required, not included

Transforming digital fun into a hands-on learning experience, this kit interfaces with your iPad to lead your child through games with tactile pieces like silicone sticks that make the games more fun and immersive. The kit comes with four educational games that help your child learn to recognize and form letters, develop drawing skills, and practice problem-solving.

Heads up

This game requires an iPad for play.

Specs

• 3 x 12 x 9.6 inches
• 2.2 pounds
• Recommended for ages 3-5
• Requires iPad, not included

At this age, kids can climb, swing, balance, dangle, and otherwise dominate a playground jungle gym, so give your 5-year-old a real challenge with this obstacle course that you can change anytime you like. Fasten the slackline to two trees, and then pile on the monkey bars, gymnastic rings, seat swing, and so on to give them a new challenge. Once they’ve mastered the obstacle course, use the slackline for tightrope challenges.

Heads up

This product can be difficult to set up.

Specs

• 17.9 x 11.2 x 6.3 inches
• 12.21 pounds
• Recommended for age 5 and up

Great for indoors or outdoor play, the Go Kart is pedal-powered so kids control their own speed or direction, noneed for batteries. The high-backed bucket seat is comfy and has a cool speedway look, and it’s easy to adjust for different riders or to adapt to your child’s growing legs. Kids love that they can also pedal this vehicle backwards.

Heads up

The wheels feel harder than the rubber claimed on the description..

Specs

• 39.4 x 23.2 x 24.4 inches
• 23.6
• Recommended for ages 3-8
• Maximum weight 66 pounds

This unique 3D puzzle set allows kids to fabricate anything from simple flat designs to complex objects.Each brick connects with every other one, so kids can mix, match, and build creations with a unique pixelated blocky look, polishing up their fine motor and problem solving skills while they do. All the pieces store inside a slim plastic tube that’s easy to take along on car rides or trips to Grandma’s.

Heads up

The pieces are small, so be cautious if you have little siblings around.

Specs

• 2 x 2 x 11 inches
• 3.2 ounces
• Recommended for ages 5-12
• 240 pieces

Introduce your child to the basics of coding with this screen-free toy, which features a cute bot that performs on command, directed by a remote control unit, or can be programmed to perform a routine of up to 120 steps, complete with coding-compliant looping commands and if/then logic. Botley can detect and evade objects in its path too, which might make robot obstacle courses a new hobby at your house.

Parents say

“My child has a Botley coding robot and he loves it!”

Heads up

This toy requires two different types of batteries.

Specs

• 9 x 9 x 6.2 inches
• 2.2 pounds
• Recommended for ages 5-8
• 5 AAA batteries and 1 lithium ion battery required, not included

Turn bathtime fun up a notch with washable bath paints and crayons to decorate your walls, the sides of your tub, or the included reusable bath clings in the shape of friendly sea creatures. The included paint roller is particularly fun to work with; squeeze out blobs of paint and roll them into ombre rainbows that change every time the water hits them. When bath time’s over, everything washes away clean until next time.

Heads up

The stickers disintegrate pretty fast when wet.

Specs

• 16 x 2 x 14 inches
• 1.38 pounds
• Recommended for age 3 and up
• Contains 1 paint roller, 4 bath paints, 1 expanding terrycloth towel, 4 bags of bath confetti, 6 bath crayons, 9 reusable bath clings, 3 bath foam stickers, and 2 reversible bath poster (15 x 13 inches)
  

What imaginary journeys will your child make on this enchanting miniature mine set with fun features like a car-loading boom crane that makes cool clicking noises as it’s cranked, a conveyor belt to move loads from level to level. Kids will love ringing the warning bell when cars are coming through, and wheeling sick vehicles to the repair station for a little looking-after.

Heads up

This set does not come pre-assembled.

Specs

• 36.22 x 25.98 x 23.03 inches
• 23.1 pounds
• Recommended for ages 3-12
• 34 pieces

The best thing next to a real live pet are these Fingerlings Untamed Velociraptors. Kids love both modes of these finger-gripping creatures: untamed, in which they chomp and roar, ortame, which transforms the dinos into friendly purring li’l kittens. They have snapping jaws and grippy claws to hold on to your child’s finger, and react to your child’s touch with sound and motions.

Heads up

Depending on your child’s personality, parents have found that this toy loses its novelty fast.

Specs

• 2.97 x 2.08 x 5.54 inches
• 7 ounces
• Recommended for ages 5-15
• 4 LR44 batteries required, included

Like a kids’ version of the Peloton, this smart exercise bike connects with your tablet or TV screen to let your child pedal her way through games and learning adventures connected with letters and logic. They can also play in racing mode to test their mettle against favorite Nickelodeon shows, or driving mode, avoiding virtual obstacles in digital lands.

Heads up

Not all devices are compatible with this toy; be sure that you have a compatible device before purchasing.

Specs

• 17.72 x 31.1 x 30.32 inches
• 16 pounds
• Recommended for ages 3-6
• Maximum weight 75 pounds
• Smart Cycle is compatible with Apple iPad, Apple TV, most Android tablets, Android TV, Amazon Fire tablets, and Amazon FireTV

Sometimes the best toys are the simplest: These spiral-bound Scratch Art books allow kids to etch a dark background with a wooden stylus to reveal hidden pictures of animals or vehicles. Making the black disappear line by line is a curiously mesmerizing activity that’s perfect for travel or anytime you want a few quiet moments.

Heads up

While fun and entertaining, these can be a little messy.

Specs

• 6.7 x 2.4 x 10.1 inches
• 1 pound
• Recommended for ages 5-8

Because 5-year-olds are becoming much more coordinated and enjoy showing off their new physical skills, they love toys that they can ride on, stand on, bounce on, scoot with, or kick. Since most 5-year-olds prefer to play with others at this age, games that allow them to play harmoniously together, or ones that allow them to take turns playing are key.

Five-year-olds are also interested in exploring their own capabilities and enjoy making small decisions for themselves, like what they want to eat for lunch or wear for the day. Toys that are simple enough for 5-year-olds to set up and play on their own without any adult help will be appreciated, as will toys that offer open-ended, independent play.

As kindergartners develop cognitively and socially, they love to mimic what they are seeing and experiencing in the world around them. Classic 5-year-old toys thus often imitate adult objects: play food, toy kitchens, miniature workbenches. Imaginative, energetic 5-year-olds also appreciate toys that allow them to express their burgeoning creativity: building toys, art kits, paint, clay, crayons, and paper.