Looking back with the perspective I have now, this is what I would do if my oldest was around five-years-old, with or without younger siblings.
I would:
1. Read aloud to my child from a variety of good books
2. Give my child plenty of free time to play inside or outside and to participate with me in daily household tasks
3. Teach my child to read if he showed reading readiness
4. Teach my child to write letters if he was ready
5. Do an activity a few times a week to develop either math skills or fine motor skills
That's it. I could do more, but I don't think it would be necessary. I've included more specifics to each one below.
1. Read aloud to my child
I list this as the number one thing because, besides passing on the Christian faith to our children and caring for their needs, I think this is the most important thing I can do for my child. Even if I did nothing else, I would make sure to read to my child--at meal times, at bed time, before rest time, in the morning--just one of those or all of them. I would play books on CD (audiobooks) during a rest time or while driving to the store. Doing this would have so many amazing benefits that I can't even begin to list here. You can hear about many of them on the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast episodes, which I highly recommend.
By the way, I wouldn't stop reading aloud to my child just because he could read to himself. There are even more benefits to be gained by reading to your child or letting them listen to audiobooks up through the teen years and beyond. Plus, I love the idea of building our family culture around books, and reading aloud together helps accomplish that goal.
2. Give my child plenty of free time to play inside or outside and to participate with me in daily household tasks
Young children need lots of time to play. We might think they aren't learning anything while they play, but that just isn't true. Giving my child opportunities to help me mix up some food in the kitchen or put laundry in the dryer would help him develop good life skills. Having good, open-ended toys is helpful too--blocks, Legos/Duplos, dolls/dollhouses, Lincoln Logs, dress-up clothes, trains. However, as my husband says, cardboard boxes and sticks work just as well. Speaking of cardboard boxes, I want to try making a fort like this one once we get a big box. Add a soft blanket and a pillow and it would be a perfect place to read books.
3. Teach my child to read if he showed reading readiness
I had one child who learned to read at five and another at seven. I used Dr. Seuss's ABC book to teach letter sounds (adding one letter sound a week) to my second child. My first learned the sounds using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Both my first and second used that same book to learn to read. We never finished it, but it gave us a good start until their reading took off. My current one learning is four, but we are focusing on the letters of the alphabet right now using the Pre-Reading level of All About Reading.
I would spend 10-15 minutes each weekday learning letter sounds and sounding out words using an ABC book and Bob books, All About Reading or the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. There are many resources out there for teaching children to read. I like the three mentioned because they are pretty much open and go.
I would not worry if my child didn't show readiness at five or even six. I would make sure to be reading aloud to my child, that is the most important thing. And I would keep telling myself not to worry even if he didn't learn to read until he was quite a bit older.
Along with teaching my child to read, I would also memorize Scripture or poems together. A five-year-old can memorize a whole Psalm or other passage and whole poems. This would aid in reading down the road (as well as provide rich language and important truths for my children to have in their minds and hearts).
4. Teach my child to write letters if he was ready
Once I saw that my child was either trying to write letters on his own or at least able to hold a pencil, I would start with Handwriting without Tears about five minutes each week day. HWT is the only resource I've used for printing, though there are many available. I would go through Letters and Numbers for Me and My Printing Book over a year or two (just the student workbooks--I wouldn't bother with the teacher manuals), and if the printing was well-established, I would move onto cursive in first or second grade. I used to be against starting cursive that early, but I have since changed my mind.
If my child wasn't ready to learn printing, I would focus on fine motor skills to strengthen his hands.
5. Do an activity a few times a week to develop either math skills or fine motor skills
Math skills activities:
--Games (Uno, any game that involves counting spaces, Mancala, Racko, Camelot Jr. or anything else by this company, Quirkle)
--Pattern blocks or magnetic pattern blocks
--Imaginets
--Puzzles--such as Lauri number puzzle or a jigsaw puzzle
--Sorting with just about anything and talking about how they sorted the objects, how many are in each group, which group has more/less/the same amounts (M&Ms, buttons, beans, pasta, plastic counting bears, coins, trail mix)
--Skip counting and regular counting (coins, stairs, while you walk down the street, how many plates needed to set the table, how many of anything they see on a page of a book)
--Playing store with play money and a cash register (admittedly not my favorite activity, but my girls love it)
Fine motor skills:
--Any activity with clothespins (clipping clothes on a clothesline, clipping clothespins onto the side of a container)
--Playing with playdough
--Using scissors to cut paper or playdough (my third child used to sit next to a small trashcan and cut strips of paper into little pieces for a long time, I kid you not)
--Any activity that requires picking up little things and putting them into something else (placing coins into a slot or piggy bank, using tongs or tweezers to put puff balls into a muffin tin or egg carton, picking up toothpicks and inserting them into an empty spice jar with a top that has holes)
--Coloring or drawing
--Building with Lego pieces
Those are the five things I'd focus on with my five-year-old. Below are thoughts on what I've left out.
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I left out screens of all types because I don't think they are necessary, particularly for such a young child, as part of their education. In fact, I might go so far to say that regular use of screens could be harmful. I know that's stepping on a few toes in saying that.
It has been our personal choice to limit screen time for our children. I find that whatever time benefit I gain while they are watching is usually spent in grumpy or hyper attitudes when they are done. They usually spend about an average of two hours a week watching videos. There are weeks when there is more video-watching than normal, but when we are in a routine, they watch little. Instead of videos I try to put on an audiobook when we need a distraction.
My older three (not the 16-month-old, who does not do apps yet) do use some apps on my iPhone. I think they have their place. We use a couple of apps to practice math facts for the oldest two (Math Bingo and Math Facts Master). The four-year-old gets to be on apps about 3-4 times a week for a total of probably about an hour a week. When I just had a five-year-old on down, I didn't even have apps in the house, so we all know we can exist just fine without using them. :) Same goes for computer games. At five-years-old I might let my child play Starfall.com 2-3 times a week for 20-30 minutes a time (I would set a timer--I've found that keeps me accountable to say time is up!).
I can understand the temptation (or even need) to use screens as a babysitter or break-giver for a tired parent. I'm with my kids just about 24-7. I would encourage you to try, even one day a week, to take a break from screens. Make it a no screen day and maybe even take the break yourself. Put on some audiobooks instead if you need a break. Or just have a set time when you use screens and try not to use them other times. Even replacing one 15-30 minute screen session a day with you (or an audiobook) reading aloud to your child will reap countless benefits down the road. That would end up being over one and a half to three hours a week and six to twelve hours a month of your child hearing good books read out loud.
And I would discourage using screens in the car if you can help it. I can understand on a long car trip (we do our fair share of trips to Texas each year, so I can empathize--our DVD player broke a few car trips ago), but when just driving around town, try to play (you know what's coming) an audiobook.
Arts and crafts
I have no problem with arts and crafts. I just didn't mention it specifically in the top five because I know that some people (and their kids) just aren't into that sort of thing. There is great value in drawing, coloring, painting, using clay, and doing all sorts of handwork. I'm not a big fan of big crafts and projects that take up lots of space, and I love making things that have a practical purpose or can be given as a gift. Oh, and glitter makes me twitch. However, below are some art and handwork I would do with a five-year-old:
--Coloring and drawing
--Painting--I like watercolors best, but sometimes we do acrylic or tempera
--Clay
--Contact paper collages (the sticky, clear plastic you can apply to shelves--you can use these to stick all sorts of things like leaves, flowers, tissue paper, etc to. Then apply a top sheet of the contact paper and display in a window or use for a place mat).
--Knitting--my second child learned at five-and-a-half--she used circular, size 8 needles and mostly made scarves and blankets
--Embroidery
--Woodworking
--Sewing
Extracurricular activities
I would maybe have one thing at a time for a five-year-old. Swimming lessons or soccer or T-ball (mine were never interested in the last two, but those are good activities) or gymnastics or dance or possibly start a musical instrument like the piano or violin. Or nothing. Just enjoy playing with family and friends and not being busy. We are kind of homebodies, so we have always opted for being involved in fewer outside activities.
Science experiments
If you love doing these and your five-year-old is interested in them, then please enjoy doing them. We do plenty of reading about science, but we haven't done many science experiments. Does that mean that none of my kids will grow up interested in science? Probably not. My second loves nature, and we've read books like the Burgess Bird Book for Children, which coincidentally, is on Librivox.org if you wanted to play a free audio book for your children.
Field trips
These can be beneficial, but, again, not essential. When I had a five-year-old, it was sometimes overwhelming (and still is) to get everyone out of the house to go somewhere. Our field trips were often just going to the zoo or children's museum. We did get to a farm and have enjoyed a trip to see how maple syrup is made. And we have enjoyed picking fruit in season. Those are my very favorite field trips. Just do what you enjoy and are already doing.
Everything else
I'm assuming you are doing a number of things anyway or apart from what you might consider "homeschool work". Ideally all of life is part of your child's education. So I haven't mentioned things like family Bible/worship times, family activities such as going to a pool or park or for a bike ride, serving others, chores, working through conflict and emotions, etc.
Whew...that ended up being a long post. Since I mentioned books and audiobooks so much, I hope to have another post up soon with lists and links for both of those. Everyone in our family loves books...even our youngest has caught the book bug and brings us his board books to read to him.
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