Clean Up Clean Up

Helping children learn to clean up after themselves can be a tricky task. Here are a few ideas on motivating your little ones to have fun while they clean up:

• First off, don't surprise children with clean up time. Give them a 5 or 10 minute heads up. "In five minutes we need to start picking up"
• The mess can be overwhelming for toddlers and just asking them to help doesn't compute so be specific about what they should clean up. Put the crayons in this bin, put your dolls in the toybox, Etc.
• Put a timer on and see if they can get all the toys put away before the timer goes off. If you have more than one child give each an area that needs to be cleaned and see who can clean it faster. Winner get a sticker.
• Use puppets and have them pretend to eat the toys as they clean them up
• Play I Spy and have children try to guess what you are looking at. Once they find it they need to put it away.
• Use The Freeze song by Greg and Steve. Have kids clean up while the music plays but then they need to freeze when it stops.
• Make it fun. Don't show your frustration about the mess, simply make it a fun time and your kids will pick up on your attitude.