We have launched a new app called ’50 things to do before you’re five’, which is free to download and packed full of fun, free or low-cost activities for under-fives.

Those first five years can be exhausting, challenging, joyful, life changing, and everything in between! They are so vital in your child’s development – they make them who they are.

The 50 activities on the list are all little things, many of which you would have done before, like taking a trip to the park and jumping in puddles. But there are some that you may not have thought of, that your child will love and pick up really quickly, like learning some sign language.

They have been carefully designed to give your little one life experiences and build happy memories. They help them learn about the world they live in and give you the opportunity to talk together, developing essential language and vocabulary. Most importantly, they encourage special and quality family time together.

So how many have you done?

  1. Get to know you, their care giver
  2. Help them get to know themselves and their world
  3. Make a sensory basket for them to explore textures, sounds and tastes
  4. Make marks (with crayons, pens, paints)
  5. Play with sand
  6. Enjoy nursery rhymes together
  7. Make music
  8. Blow bubbles
  9. Explore bugs and mini beasts
  10. Share books
  11. Explore connections, fastenings and links
  12. Play in the snow
  13. Try shouting and whispering
  14. Look at the stars and moon
  15. Dress up
  16. Watch and listen to fireworks
  17. Make potions
  18. Dance
  19. Grow something
  20. Make big artwork outside with water, chalks or paints
  21. Make each other laugh
  22. Collect treasures
  23. See some kind of show
  24. Hop, skip and jump
  25. Junk modelling
  26. Play with water
  27. Go to the park
  28. Travel on a bus, boat or train
  29. Splash in puddles
  30. Have a picnic
  31. Bounce
  32. Play peepo and hide-and-seek
  33. Make a den
  34. Visit the woods
  35. Cross a bridge over water
  36. Blow out candles
  37. Take a special grown up to nursery or playgroup to see what you do
  38. Post letters
  39. Learn some sign language
  40. Visit a castle, art gallery or museum
  41. Explore a river, lake or reservoir
  42. Make and play with dough, clay and gloop
  43. High five someone in uniform who helps us
  44. Look at the world from up high
  45. Play word-games like eye-spy
  46. Fold a paper plane or ‘chatterbox’
  47. Bake something
  48. Create natural art with stones, twigs, shells and seaweed
  49. Lie on the grass and see what’s in the sky
  50. Take a trip to the seaside

Download the free app and start ticking off the list now!

Follow the 50 things facebook and Instagram accounts for more ideas, and to share photos.