My parents got the Together app, which allows them to read and play games with my kids. Can chat like FaceTime as well. They love it (and only one side has to pay).

Caribou app!!

Is your 5yr old enough for battleship? war (with two decks)?

Anonymous wrote:Mad libs! Just started doing these with my 5 year old and he thinks they are hysterical.

+1
Or have Grandma tell a story DC gets to help with.
"there was a girl named ___. One day, she decided to go on a trip to ___. how did she get there? plane train drive walk?" etc

My 6 year old likes to teach my parents drawing or lego building via FaceTime. She watches those "how to draw ..." and "... Lego Build" videos on youtube. So when my parents call, she becomes the instructor and acts like the narrator on one of those videos. She draws a picture or builds a Lego creation while narrating step by step and explaining why she is choosing certain colors or blocks.

It doesn't give my parents much opportunity to talk, but they don't mind, as they are not native English speakers and it can be hard for them to make themselves understood over video.

My five year old LOVES hangman over FaceTime with her grandparents.

My mom reads to my boys over FT

It would be great for both to read chapter books together. Things like Harry Potter and Magic Tree House are great for this age. Your daughter can listen as grandma reads and follow along. She can try every other or just a paragraph if she’s not comfortable.

My DS 5 and his grandmom use the app Caribou to read to each other, play tic tac toe, paint programs. It’s super sweet.

Coloring. Send grandma the same coloring book as your child has and some crayons. They can color or draw pictures together.

I play with 5 year old granddaughter on FaceTime
We play with toys, read books, draw pictures
She puts on mini plays, sometimes we dance and often just chat

Nanny here. I FaceTime with a former charge I’m still very close to. The biggest hits with him are me reading chapter books to him or he and I pretending to be astronauts on different spaceships conversing. Sometimes he just wants to tell me something that bothered him or hurt him that day.

My 5 year old has been doing story time every day with my mother. Grandmother is a librarian, so doesn't hurt that there's an endless supply of books. She also likes to build forts and play hide and seek with my child free sister and those animated faces/backgrounds on Facetime and Facebook video calls. Facebook video also has interactive games for callers, like both compete by moving their heads to see who can pop the most bubbles. Grandmother doesn't have patience for the pretend play and silly faces, but maybe your mom does.

Just don't try to keep a 5 year old engaged in conversation for more than a minute or two, they just need some activity to keep their attention.

This is a great forum! I'm trying sock puppets! Something everyone has is old socks? Glue stick and markers, here we go!

Yep, we do the books also. But coloring, legos, kinds of things work also.