I am having a tough time teaching my 2.5-year-old daughter to clean up her toys. The majority of the time, she just will not do it. I tried making a game of it, giving her time out, taking the toy away, and giving lots of praise when she does clean up, etc. Nothing has really worked. The things I ask her to clean up are manageable for her age/size, and I compromise by offering to help her. No luck. I think this is an important lesson, and I am striking out here. Any advice?
Hi A.~
Have you tried setting a timer and making it into a race? I used to use that technique when I taught. The students seemed to enjoy trying to beat the clock.
~E.
I give my son (who is almost 3) specific things to clean up. I will tell him to clean up his trains and put them here (even though he knows where they go). This makes the task more managable for him. I will also tell him that I need him to pick up a certain item while I pick up another item, so he knows that its a team deal. Start small, you may end up doing a lot of the cleaning, but eventually work it up so that she is doing a lot of the work.
all the idea are good that everyone has said so far and try not letting her have more then a few toys at a time if she wants more she has to clean up first.
A.,
This has worked wonders in our home...
<http://www.housefairy.org/>
It's been awesome, and worth it!
You can also visit <http://www.flylady.net/index.asp> for other great ideas on helping youngsters to clean up. Not to mention learning to keep clean ourselves. LOL.
Best of luck!
Rolinda,
Wife, Mother, Friend
Hi A.
I don't have anything new to offer you - my son (2-year old) helps me with cleanign up - he will get me the toys and even puts them in the toy basket. I don't do anything special but I definitely clap for him and give him a huge applause when he does that.....
Sometimes, I tell him that we are going to read his favorite book (he loves reading books)...and right when he brings me his books, I'll say - we'll read this but after we have cleaned up.
Hope this helps.
T.
Hello A.,
have you ever heard of the clean up song, you sing it while your daughter cleans up, if you help or not it's a great little song and it helped my daughter learn how to clean, and now to this day she sings the song her self so she cleans up, and when i hear her sing it i help her out.Hear it is if you don't know it . ( Clean up clean up everybody every where, clean up clean up every body do there share.) and you just repeat that over and over again, it's great and my daughter who will be 5 next month loves it to death. I hope that this helps
Good Luck
S.
