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Imagine this: The kids are playing happily with their toys, blocks, or puzzles, next thing you see they have left the toys and moved off to the next thing. Come day end the place is a mess and who is going to pick up all this stuff? MOM = YOU. My reasoning behind this is, want them to pick up & cleaning up the toys after playing.
I saw this comment a while ago:
“If a child is old enough to get out a toy to play with, she is old enough to put it away.”
My reasoning behind wanting to have the kids pick up their toys after playing, be it after one toy use or at the end of the day, is to teach my little ones (aged 1, 3, and 4) to be aware and considerate of the “mess” that they are making.
Call me crazy but I see the adult version of my child and the mess, just utter mess that he has no regard for whatsoever. The poor woman who he marries, nagging and nagging for the dish to be put in the kitchen or the washing that is next to the basket to actually be aimed into the washing basket next time. I want to raise young happy thoughtful kids who will grow into caring and considerate adults.
The best way I can see achieving this is to make it fun. Below are some tips and ways you can achieve this as well as a collection of links and quotes from some lovely ladies on how they get their kids to pick up after themselves. One will work for your little one, I am sure.
Kids love to scoop stuff up, try to have a special dustpan for the play area and a little rake to add a little extra to the dustpan “game”.
Rotate the toys so there isn’t so many of them out to pick up in the first place. I find that the kids actually use and play with the toys this way in our house as opposed to having everything in a basket.
Create kid friendly storage areas. Display toys on a kid height shelf as advised in the Montessori way. I feel this gives them the freedom to play and then pack away where the toy belongs in its spot. Try adding DIY Toy Bin Labels to your storage area like East Coast Mommy did.
Break it down, don’t just say “clean up” to a toddler / preschooler that can be one big daunting task! Start small, with just books, toy cars or the train set.
Explain to your child why we clean up, to most packing the toys away is kind of like putting all the fun away.
Heidi says: “I make it a game, I will pick something and say,’ hey G, make all those blocks bounce to their box, GOOO’ and off she’d go. The packet ate the shapes game, the teddies got fairy dust and flew to the cupboard”
Allison from No Time For Flash Cards says – “We do 10 second tidy, where I see what they can pick up in 10 seconds ( usually me counting to ten much slower than 10 seconds though), also giving them numbers to pick up ” pick up 3 things, now 5 , now 7!” as well as my fave that also worked with my very jaded 6th graders when I was student teaching ” Secret toy / garbage / whatever they are picking up. You choose something to be the secret toy and whoever picks it up wins . Amazingly it’s always one of the last toys, pieces of garbage etc.”
Childhood 101 says: When playing with them, observe times that they move from one activity to another and use these as teachable moments, “I will come and play with the blocks too but I am just going to pop the book back away in the basket first.”
Example clean up songs to sing:
Song 1 – to the tune of Mary Had a little Lamb
Time to put the toys away
Toys away, toys away
Time to put the toys away
For another day.
Time to put the blocks away,
Blocks away, blocks away
Time to put the blocks away
For another day
Change the item to put away until everything’s away.
Song 2 – to the tune of Frere Jacques (Where is Thumbkin)
Playtime’s over, Playtime’s over
Let’s clean up, let’s clean up
Then we’ll ……………
And ………………….
Fill in whatever you are going to do next. For example:
Then we’ll wash our hands, then we’ll wash our hands
And go eat lunch, and go eat lunch.
or
Then we’ll sit on the carpet, then we’ll sit on the carpet
For story time, for story time.
Song 3 – to the tune of He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
Time to put the (toys) away
Time to put the (toys) away
Time to put the (toys) away
So we can (go outside!)
Fill in whatever toys and whatever you’re doing next.
How do you encourage your children to pack up after play?
Rebecca Jackson says
Amazing tips and thank you for sharing this. Though, I agree with all the the points here, it is also important to have that quality time with the kiddos. Anyways, great read!
Lisa Logan says
I appreciate your blog so much. I am a grandma who is a stay at home granny Nanny. I used to be a preschool teacher, but it has been many many years. I enjoy refreshing my memory on all of these great ideas. Thank you.
Nicolette Roux says
Thank you for your comment! I love to hear that my blog is helping 😀
http://newcrosscarpetcleaners.org.uk/ says
Such a great and interesting article. You are definitely a smart person and a fantastic mother. Thanks for sharing your experience and advices they help me a lot and I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way. Your children are lucky they have such a great mom.
dianna says
Dont forget the Barney cleanup song! “Clean up, Clean up, everybody everywhere…Clean up, Clean up, everybody do your share”
I can get my youngest to do pretty much anything if I sing lol.
Nicolette Roux says
that is awesome!
Suzanne Holt says
Love how you collaborated on this post. Thanks for sharing fun ways to help kids learn how to help. Pinned to my “Teaching Children How to Clean” board.
carmen says
Cool ideas, looking forward to use it when I have kids. Thanks you.
Chelsey~ Buggy and Buddy says
Wow! This is seriously a fantastic post! Such a great resource for parents and teachers! Thank you so much for linking up to Discover & Explore!
Kat says
I teach kindergarten and since we keep the kids after school until the upper classes get out, they have quite a few toys to play with…and clean up. I’ve made it clear in my classroom that teacher does not, in any way, clean up the toys after them. That’s their job.
Of course, they are five…
I’ve found that giving each child a specif toy to clean up helps with the “I don’t know what to clean up” syndrome. I give two kids the job to clean up just the blocks, two others to clean up the dolls, ect. It also means that at the end, if one group has been dilligent about cleaning up and another hasn’t then I can reward the hard working group by letting them go, and the others can stay and keep cleaning. If it isn’t time to go yet, they are just told to find something to keep cleaning up.
We also occasionally play “beat the teacher”. I tell them I bet they can’t clean up the whole room (or a section of the room) before I count down from (high number based on the mess). Whoever wins gets to get a sparkly (part of the class reward system)-me, I get to keep them, they win and they each get one. They actually work really well with a time limit, whether I offer a reward or not, because it gives them an actual sense of time.
Magic trash also works pretty well, especially when it comes to just general bits of trash. I tell them they won’t find out who had the magic piece until all the trash is cleaned up. Usually, it’s whoever I actually saw picking up bits of trash, or its an actual specific piece.
When it gets really bad, I simply let them know they either clean the toy up Now, or that toy goes away tomorrow.
Anna@The Measured Mom says
Great tips! Something all of us can use, I’m sure 🙂 Pinning – and thanks for sharing at After School!
Lisa @ Charlie The Cavalier says
Great tips! I try to play basket ball with the basket when we put toys away.
Dezaree says
Great post! I was just thinking about writing a post about how to keep your house clean when you have kids lol. I love the tip about the dust pan and scooping stuff up! I will have to include that one in my list for sure. I will link back to you <3 Thanks for sharing 🙂
Heather @ Crayon Box Chronicles says
Hi Nicolette! Great ideas on clean-up! My son loves songs, so we’ll definitely try them! We hacked an IKEA book shelf and made a custom bench/storage toy area, so labeling is the next step! Great tips and thank for sharing today!
Jennifer Tilston says
My favourite is to cycle the toys. Not only do they play more intently when there are less and they are “new”, but it is much less overwhelming when it’s tidy time.