What sort of things do you 5/6 year olds do at home?

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My 5 (nearly 6) year old doesn't want to do anything other than go on his tablet or the switch- I definitely let this slip as the easier option due to circumstances that have/are making things quite stressful but I really want to deal with this screen time issue, I've given him a daily limit of 1 hour and he just spends all the other hours of the day kicking off about how mean I am not letting him play his games.
he struggles with fine and gross motor skills ( he always has) so things like Lego and drawing he just won't do because it's too difficult for him.
he has lots of toys but doesn't seem interested, just looking for any ideas of things he might want to do/play

Mine loves snakes and ladders, snap, playing keep the balloon off the floor for the longest with me, they’re too tired to want to engage in much but these things work for us.

We had those issues and ended up banning gaming completely for a loooong while to a) reset behaviour and b) let them learn to be bored.

When they don't game in the week they now do boardgames, draw, arts and crafts, lego, maybe baking if I have the time/patience, etc

My 5 year old son loves board game type things. Game of life, fishing, snap, screwball scramble is a fav. He hasn't been introduced to pad or switch though. Any chance you could undo any of that? Of course there will be a battle at first but maybe it will be worth it?

My 5 year old's biggest favourite is Lego which he'll play with for hours but (seeing your DS doesn't like that) other things which he enjoys are magnetic tiles, building bricks (basically any building toy), making dens, dressing up / imaginary play, and occasionally play kitchen. I find open ended toys are the best as they encourage imagination. He also has a Yoto player which he LOVES and often listens to (stories, music, podcasts) while he plays. I also find he needs to leave the house at least once a day otherwise things start getting a bit manic. Even if it's just a couple of times round the block on his scooter.

Also - he used to play iPad games every morning while DH and I were showering / getting dressed. We'd got to the point where his mood was so foul and he had such big tantrums when we switched it off that we decided to go cold turkey. It felt like (and probably was) a screen addiction.

We had a horrible few weeks with lots of moaning and stropping about the iPad but he's adjusted now and doesn't even ask for it - much fewer tantrums too, although that may not be connected.

I think it's helpful to have very clear boundaries with tech. The ones you've set sound very reasonable and hopefully he'll settle down when he realises you're sticking to them. A friend uses a timer for her kids iPad use which she finds helpful because it means it's not her telling them to switch off, it's the timer (IYSWIM).

5 and 7 yr olds , and I have done the same with too much tablet time. This week they haven't had it at all. We've played table football,hide and seek on the house. Reading. 5 yr old played with teddies and they both made me a large meal in their play kitchen ,(untouched for months). Activity books, jigsaws, cars, rubiks cubes.

Video game/tablet use was not a daily allowance at our house. It was an occasional thing - not even regularly once a week at that age. They knew and know now that they have to earn any such screen time with other healthy play and that if they can't do that we will take it as a sign that they have become obsessed and the privilege will disappear.

Personally I think for your aged child just pull it altogether and have a reset with a very clear rules laid out, written out as a family and posted. Maybe make a big "bored" list together in big markers of all the many ideas you can come up with for things to do when feeling that way.

Also for toys - you could try putting some things away for a time, then when you bring out the "train box" or the "play dough box" for example - its like new again.

Id let him play til the battery is flat and then 'oh no, we can't find the charger, whoops, where could it be?!' then put it out of sight and whenever he asks, oh you've not found the charger yet, why don't you build a Lego house/draw me picture/play snap etc.
Once you've broken the addiction, you can find the charger. I find giving mine two smaller blocks of time works better than one big go, although I am more generous with it while the weather's horrible as long as they are willing to put it away when told and do other things!

You need to go cold turkey on the screens. Then he'll show an interest in the toys he has. The first day or so will be painful.

Agree with @FixItUpChappie on putting toys away. My DS (and younger DD) plays much better with fewer toys available, and rotating toys between loft/cupboard and play space seems to help make old toys feel new and exciting again. I find if there's too much out my two just flit from one thing to another and make a mess!

Mine loves making cards (saves me a fortune )/drawing/colouring, playing snap/junior "ponopoly"/guess who, building Lego and role play games with her little sister.

My 6 year old does colouring, drawing, arts and crafts, Lego building, uses his playdough sets (I have lots of playdough cutters etc), kinetic sand, board games and playing with his toys either indoor or outdoors. He loves his bluey toys. We also do learning things together such as biff & chipper school books for reading time, flash card with words rather than letters, rhyming games plus sentences etc.

iPad and Nintendo time is very limited (normally once or twice a week for an hour max) as I can see the deterioration in his behaviour when he is on it too much. His nearly 11 year old sibling is limited to 1 hour a day on either his Nintendo, phone or the iPad. I don't let him exceed this hour because his behaviour also deteriorates and he gets angry and shows no interest in anything else if I allow more.

If technology is creating problems for you and your child it's probably best to ban it or put it as a once a week treat only for one hour maximum. I see 6 year olds around my area sitting on phones and not playing or interacting with each other which is really not healthy or good fit there development

My 5 year old still loves it when I get the playdoh out (helps with motor skills too as my Ds struggles and isn't into art etc)

He also loves hot wheels cars and garage (not so much hot wheel tracks)

The thing he spends the most time playing with though is imaginative play with his superhero figures (batman, Spiderman etc) and batmobile

We haven't caved with a switch yet or his own iPad but he loves playing lego games on DH's PS4 and watching YouTube so we've had to massively reduce and he's started playing more with his toys again.
He also really enjoys cooking(making soup or dinners etc) And pottering atpund helping me with housework etc

• Anything with wheels - hot wheels cars, trains, Lego stunt bikes. He has soooo many.
• Lego sets that go with his stunt bikes
• track for his cars, he got a new hot wheels race track for Christmas that rolls up into car storage and races 5 cars at once
• Lego people - he prefers them over dolls/action figures
• games he can play with us. Currently it's memory games/memory snap, hungry hungry hippos, dobble kids and uno kids.

DS doesn't get tablets on school days at all. But he usually only has about 90 mins from getting home to going to bed as he's at after school club. So the small window of time he has to play is usually cars because it's easy for him to grab and play on his own whilst I make tea/sort washing etc.
at weekends he gets 1 hour a day on his tablet, same with school holidays but it isn't every day.

I’m not anti screens but an hour a day is a lot - tv is different, people can ignore it more easily, it’s inclusive, everyone can comment- tablets and gaming are addictive.
My 5yr old after school has a snack, some CBeebies, then it’s homework maths games or some sounds/spellings. Then she will play with her sister (usually jumping on the sofa/ fighting over a tent), or colouring until dinner at 5pm.

my niece who is 4 enjoys board games of all kinds guess who dominoes junior monopoly dominoes pairs and snap snakes and ladders ludo are all favourites
she also likes arts and crafts such as making cards colouring sticking sticker books etc
still enjoys her paw patrol figures
just got a tablet for xmas but it is restricted use has to do educational things on there as well
Also enjoys jigsaw Outside she enjoys riding her bike and doing to the park and soft play etc

she also goes to after school club so comes in tired and doesnt have long before she needs to go to bed probably about an hour and a half so has a snack does any reading she has bit of tv to wind down bath and bef

My five yea old likes doing exercise videos on YouTube, the YouTuber he’s allowed is called Miss Linky, she does ninja, Spider-Man etc and read stories. I don’t mind that for screen time as he’s actually moving.
Otherwise it’s playing Batman, trampoline in all weathers bar the rain, park, play dough and kinetic sand especially when paired with action figures, games like screwball scramble, dobble.
One of his fave things to do is get tucked up in our bed and read stories in the middle of the day.

5yo DS plays with DS3 most of the time. 19 month age gap and into the same things so they rarely watch anything tbh as most of their time is spent either playing with their toys, having races or playing board games. Come March they’ll be out in the garden til about October. NB they do come inside to sleep and eat 😃

Our five year old doesn't have a huge amount of spare time at home due to childcare after school and busy weekends out and about. But when she's got spare time (if she gets up and ready for school without taking 90minutes over it 🙈) or on days when she's home a little earlier, she likes drawing, including copying pictures, writing/maths/reading books (genuinely loves things that she calls 'school work' even though she gets no homework from school! It's still like playing make believe schools for her I think, all part of the game, she doesn't take it too seriously to actually work/learn things!) She also likes making things out of recycling, anything crafty, memory/board games, dens (which I'm sad to admit I have come to hate...always causes arguments with her little bro who accidentally knocks them down and we live in a tiny space so completely takes it over), small world/make believe type play with toys, building with magnaform thingies, or helping cook. Or very long baths! Or 'important jobs' like cleaning windows or hoovering she loves things that she's not quite grown up enough to do well. Or calling granny on the phone. Things she likes that I wish she didn't includes rough and tumble with her little brother (a LOT) and general misarranging/moving/investigating/loosing/taking apart things 🤣 She absolutely would have potential to get too into screen games...she's always super interested in anyone else's screens and desperate for more TV than we allow. She's currently desperate for us to charge her kiddie camera so she can play on the very rudimentary games on it. We are in no rush to find the charger!! She has no switch/iPad etc I think we would struggle to keep her on an even keel with it. We have zero screen time day to day, and only use TV for long car journeys or if we need a break from active parenting to get stuff done for some reason, or if kids or adults are ill. I think she'd quickly become problematically demanding about it if she had it more often (but hard to know if that's a chicken/egg scenario ?!)

Lots of great suggestions here for activities. Also a tuff (sp?) tray and can do all kinds with it - slime, shaving foam, I even once filled it with water and gave mine 20 different types of paper (loo paper, kitchen roll, tissue paper, wet wipe etc) as a “science experiment” to explain why loo paper is the only one allowed in the loo!

(He absolutely loved it, just to add)

6.5 year old - role playing games with DS2 (lots of blizzards and forts and hiding from enemy soldiers/dinosaurs), playing with the toy cars, recreating battles with the toy soldiers, reading, lego (only if DS2 isn't about to steal it), occasionally painting but gets bored quickly, (and playing minecraft/roblox/watching nonsense on YouTube)

6 yr old D's here We had real issues with the iPad after the summer when he'd had it a lot for travel and to entertain him waking far too early with the sun/heat.

It just had to go missing in the end because I found the daily battle too annoying. He has now completely forgotten about it and I can't remember when he last asked. This is easier for me than trying to give him some time on it in general.

DS plays with Lego a lot, he got quite a few new sets for Christmas and he has come home from school eager to get building. He also plays with cars and a type of table football that he loves. He's still quite in to imaginary play so will have all his teddies visit him at the vets, plays with dollies as his babies, and he likes being a teacher with a whiteboard he writes on. He's also quite keen on his play kitchen and often turns it into a shop. I do resent how many times I'm meant to queue up and pay though...