What will your 5 year old entertain himself with for ages?

[Jet888]

I'm looking for ideas for engrossing activities for my 5 year old DS for Summer holidays wet afternoons so I can avoid loads of screen time (his go to choice!)
He loves cars, trains etc and we obviously play ganes, jigsaws, etc together but im looking for other ideas as he hates craft/drawing etc and I need some things he can do without requiring me to do/play it directly with him. Thanks all

Magnet tiles? My DD (4) loves them, they're very open ended. She also currently loves putting plasters on her teddies, so I bought a load for 50pence each from home bargains. Keeps her entertained for ages 😂

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magnetic-Educational-Development-Construction-Christmas/dp/B0B1ZQN3WW/ref=mp_s_a_1_18?crid=1TS7Z2OUY04I1&keywords=magnet+tiles&qid=1691011828&sprefix=magnet+t%2Caps%2C130&sr=8-18

Lego/duplo

Yep I was going to say Magna Tiles too. My 5 year old plays with them loads

Mine is currently doing these tiles in bed instead of sleeping 😭

we have 2 sets of these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MGYKZ36/ref=sspa_mw_detail_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2YCTJUHN5OGGG&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9kZXRhaWw

My boy really enjoys the Crayola themed colouring sets (Spider-Man, Bluey, etc), that have the felt tips that only work on that paper.

He also likes the Numberblocks magazine, they have some good "toys" included some times also.

They're things he can focus on for a while, he's usually an all over the show kid

Carpet road traffic jams.
He had loads of little cars in the end. He spent hours driving them on his carpet road, lining them up bumper to bumper. Driving different routes to get to the hospital or to work at the fire station. Hours of fun.

this type of thing, although I think ours was from Argos.
road rug

@Kaffiene oooh they look good, I've only got toddler-ish ones, think I'll get my DD some of these too. Thank you 😊

Magnet toys and Lego sets

Another one for magnet tiles. At 5, my son could play with them for hours! I miss those days!!

Arts and crafts, play dough, baking

Hot wheels garage and multi car loaders

A low and wide box of sand with small digger and dumper toys

bath and bath toys (I sat on the loo and worked on my laptop)

playdough and cutting/smooshing toys. Shaped biscuit cutters are good for this too

some puzzles, but not all

Lego but not sets (you'll constantly need to help/do it for them). Big box of blocks with no instructions work's far better, even if you have to squint to make the creations look like what they're ment to.

Connetix and Hot Wheels!

Duplo.
Any cars, trucks, sets of cars, garage, ramps etc.
Cbeebies ;-)

Knex, the ones for younger kids. Get a big box. Combined with an audible book my child will play for hours.

Hot wheels cars with the straight lines of track. Not a ‘set’ to build but lots and lots of straight track they can connect together and play downstairs, off a sofa or coffee table and over small hills made of other toys, etc etc

I used food colouring to dye rice all different colours and put it in a really large, shallow storage box. My son was delighted by it from 2 until nearly 6. The games changed over the course of time. Also the rice as he used it a lot and I thought it might be manky. He loved using construction vehicles in it, hiding dino skeletons in it for his playmobil palaeontologists to dig for, hunting for puzzle pieces I buried and doing 'archaeology '. He was super creative with it and spent many a wet afternoon engrossed.

Then he started getting into construction with real bricks on a tiny scale from teifoc. I found them on amazon and he is still into that at 7. I had to be quite involved at 5, but now he can build all sorts himself.

Kinetic sand the treasure chest one!

Lego combined with audiobooks. Narnia, the Hobbit, Mouse and a Motorcycle, Magic Treehouse good at that age.

He's got lego and magna tiles luckily bit hadn't thought of combining them with audio book. He loves them in the car so need to play some in the house!

At that age - hot wheels. He liked the one that had two parallel tracks so that he could race two cars and there would be a winner. He would set up tournaments and everything!