Your-5-Year-Old: Major collections

Major collections

Collecting is a favorite activity for many 5-year-olds as they notice the similarities between things, as well as differences among like objects. First collections are often whatever's handy and interesting: seashells from the beach, colored gravel bits from the driveway, small toy cars. Some collections endure for years while others are fleeting. Encourage your child by providing a special box or place to store his collection and by creating opportunities to expand it.

Your 5-year-old now
If your child hasn't started a collection yet, sometime in the coming year you may start finding pinecones in shoeboxes or rocks littering the bedroom floor. Five-year-olds love sorting and categorizing, which helps explain the appeal of collecting. A secondary appeal (to which any adult who collects antiques or knickknacks can relate) is the thrill of the hunt.

One big plus to this hobby: You'll see that what kids value, they tend to take really good care of. So the child who's indifferent to a messy room may spend hours organizing his box of rocks and keeping them in perfect order. He may put white rocks in one place, purple ones in another, or his organizational scheme may be much more complex and obscure. Ask him to explain it to you.

If he's interested in something enough to collect it, he may also want to learn more about it. Use the collection as a springboard to talking about broader topics, or look for library books that offer kid-appropriate answers: Where do the purple rocks come from? Why are they purple? What are the names of different kinds of rocks?

Even at this age, kids can retain information that seems beyond them when they're very interested. And he's apt to want to show off his knowledge to friends and family, building language and social skills.

Your life now
Parents often focus on academics when thinking about school readiness and how their child will fare. Interestingly, educators say there's another factor that may be more important — social readiness. Signs of this include a child who can separate easily from his parents, who is comfortable talking to other adults, and who wants to interact with other children and can do so pretty well, even if it first requires hanging back to watch for a few minutes.