5.25 year old life and daily schedule. Learn about this child’s daily schedule and how to handle things that come up with five year olds.
This summary covers the first three months of Brayden’s life at age five.
Summer flew on by and I now have a 5.25 year old.
A surprising amount has changed in the last few months. It really makes me marvel at how different he must be compared to children in class who turn 6 in September while he waits until May to turn 5. Crazy.
Post Contents
SLEEPING
Sleeping is currently the same as it was.
About a month and a half ago, we went through a major sleeping disruption at night. He got so anxious at bedtime and would say how worried he was.
We would sit and talk to him for 30 minutes or so about his concerns. He would not stay in bed. It was so strange.
We figured out that he had developed a fear of the dark again, so we put a nightlight in his room and that helped a lot.
>>>Read: What To Do When Your Child is Scared of the Dark
One night, my husband told him that if he stayed in his bed, Daddy would check on him two times. That seemed to be the magic ticket.
So about 30 seconds after we put him to bed, Daddy goes in and checks on him. He does it quickly because Brayden will wait and fight sleep until he gets checked on.
For some reason, 30 seconds does not seem weird to Brayden at all 🙂 .
Then he waits enough time that Brayden will have fallen asleep before checking on him a second time.
So, he is back to going to sleep peacefully.
He still does rest time for 30 minutes each day. He doesn’t fall asleep unless he has had a late night because we were camping or something.
>>>Read: When To Drop Rest Time
EATING
Eating is going well with no real adventures on the topic.
SIBLINGS
Brayden and Kaitlyn are still the best of friends. When they are together, they play all sorts of imaginary games. They laugh and giggle. They are in their own little happy world where people laugh all day long.
Brayden is doing better at being able to be helpful with McKenna without trying to take over as a third parent for McKenna. This is a challenging feat for any oldest child. I still have to fight myself from parenting my little sister.
One thing Brayden lives in fear of is McKenna ruining his creations (like things built out of Legos).
This is a justifiable fear because little McKenna loves to seek out his creations and pull them apart. He is learning to keep them out of her reach and she is hopefully learning that isn’t a nice thing to do.
>>>Read: How to Respond to Siblings Fighting
SWIMMING
During the summer, Brayden was involved in swimming lessons. He really loved the first week, but went back the next Monday terrified for some reason.
He pushed through and ended lessons loving it again. My guess is that he spent Sunday talking himself into being afraid for whatever reason.
>>>Read: How Parents Can Help with Swimming Lessons
BOSSINESS
I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is cured, but I will say it isn’t enough of a problem that I would even think of it as a problem. He has his bossy moments, but they are becoming fewer and farther between.
>>>Read: How to Manage a Bossy Child
INDEPENDENCE
Brayden now gets completely ready, including showering, without any direction from me. I tell him to go get ready. He leaves. He comes back ready.
It is fabulous.
I don’t expect a girl to be able to do this at this age unless she has short hair. Brayden’s hair is short enough that he can wash all of the shampoo out, plus he doesn’t need to do anything to his hair to be ready to go.
>>>Read: Printable Morning Routine Cards for Kids
SUSTAINED SILENT READING
I started silent reading time with him where you both sit and read something independently of your choice for 20 minutes.
He loves it. He will do it longer. Of course, he isn’t yet able to sit down and just read a book on his own unless it is a Bob book. He is just looking at books.
>>>Read: How To Improve Reading Skills with Sustained Silent Reading
5 YEAR OLD GROWTH SPURT
Brayden had a major growth spurt over these months. It was actually over a couple of weeks. It was so much that people he sees at church commented on how tall he was all of a sudden. It was one of those huge growth spurts.
KINDERGARTEN ASSESSMENT
Brayden had his Kindergarten assessment and did very well. He also had his speech assessment and everything is right on track.
It was so great to watch him complete these tasks. It was one of those payoff days. This is when you see your hard work over the years come to fruition.
This is when you hear things like, “wow, what a great attention span” and “he is such a hard worker!”
You watch the teacher smile with delight because he understands her jokes.
This is when the Speech Therapist says, “you must read to him every day because he has an amazing vocabulary.”
Yes! This is when you get some real recognition for your efforts! Not that other people haven’t thanked you (like your husband) or noticed that you have worked, but this is the day that these trained and experienced people can quickly recognize and acknowledge that you have put effort into raising this child.
It is just a payoff day. I love payoff days. You have to hold on to those with your best memory cells 🙂
SCHEDULE
This is his summer schedule. It will be changing now that school is starting. We had a more relaxed schedule for summer.
7:10-7:30–wake up. Play PBSkids.org for about 15-20 minutes. Shower and get ready.
8:15–set table for breakfast
8:30–breakfast
9:00–Clean up breakfast. We then sometimes do some music time. He plays with toys in his room while I bath the girls.
10:00ish–bike ride. Brayden rides his bike while I push the girls in the stroller. We then do our chores. Then Brayden and Kaitlyn play outside. Brayden then does some learning activities. We do our SSR time in this slot. When Kaitlyn is done with Independent play, they play together until lunch. He sometimes would play with friends during this time slot, also.
12:30–lunch. Then Kaitlyn and Brayden play for a bit.
2:00–rest time
2:30–rest time over. Independent play.
3:30–this varies. Sometimes play with friends. Sometimes play video games. Sometimes read Bob books to me. He sometimes helps me with things. 4:30–Dad home. He usually helps his Dad in the yard or the garage.
5:30ish–dinner. Then time with family
8:00-8:30–in bed. Ideally, we want an 8 PM bedtime, but most of the summer it was closer to 8:30.
We sometimes varied the order of these, also. It wasn’t set in stone. Meals are consistent as is getting ready time.
GOOD BOOKS
- On Becoming Childwise
- Love and Logic Magic
- Preschooler’s Busy Book: 365 Creative Games & Activities To Occupy 3-6 Year Olds
- The Siblings’ Busy Book
- The Five Love Languages of Children
- Parenting With Love And Logic (Updated and Expanded Edition)
RELATED POSTS
- Brayden Child Summary: 5 Years Old
- Brayden Child Summary: 5.5 Years Old
- Kaitlyn Summary: 5.25 Years Old
- McKenna Child Summary: 5.5 Years Old
- Brinley Summary: 5 Years and 1 Month Old
- Brinley Child Summary: 5 Years and 2 Months Old
- Brinley Child Summary {5 years 3 Months Old}
- 10 Chores You Five Year Old Can Do
Congrats on all your hard work! You're very inspiring that someday I'll be there with my 2 year old. He seems like a fabulous little boy!
I love when you do these updates! It's so interesting and useful as a guide. My DD1 is a bit over 3.5 and the past 6 months have amazed me. It sounds like they keep changing/growing a lot in these preschool years….although now he is officially a kindergartener! Just curious reading some of your posts, is Brayden a cautious child? My DD1 is and I think it's her personality but I kind of wonder if it can be some first-born qualities too. My 2nd is a daredevil! The swimming thing caught my attention as she is in a swimming ring and if she doesn't have her hand on you, she FREAKS out. It is really genuine. I have tried explaining to her that the ring keeps her afloat and she won't go under the water,etc. I show her her little sister happily floating away without a care in the world. It's quite funny. My first sounds close in personality to Brayden anyways but I think some are more first-born characteristics anyways. In many ways my 2 complement each other nicely.Anyways thanks for sharing!
Thank you Mollie! He is great.
ys, YES, he is very cautious. I am also a first born and very cautious. It is a common first born trait. That is all very normal.