How much does your 2.5 or 3 year old clean up?

jillianmb · April 2013

DS will be three in June and he is the worst at cleaning up. I always sing a clean up song when we are putting the toys away and he happily sings along, smiling and... watching me do all the work. It is fairly humorous. He is not defiant; if ask him to put a specific toy away he does it, but he needs very, very specific directions. Usually I'm singing, "Clean up, clean up, everybody- DSputthatpileofblocksintothegreenbin- everywhere, clean up - okaynowgetthepilebytheotherchair- clean up everybody do your -nostopplayingwiththeblocksitstimetocleanup- share!"

I can't wait until I can just say, "Clean up the blocks!" and he will just know how to put them away. :-) What does clean up time look like at your house?

KateLouise · April 2013

Yeah I think that's pretty standard too.

My friend recently introduced me to the idea of toys that are, "only one out at a time": toys. ie you have to pack one away before you can get another one out, basically anything with lots of smaller pieces or that make a big mess like blocks, craft supplies etc etc

It's really helped me remind myself to get LO to tidy up as she finishes with something, rather than just moving from one toy to another.

PandasMama0626 · April 2013

sounds like my little one. My DD will be 3 June 26th and she sometimes will clean up without a problem, other times its pulling teeth. I tell her whenever she brings out a new toy "Remember, when your done you need to put it away. Only get out the toys that you will put back when your done." Then when she is done and starts to pull a new toy out I will tell her "You need to put away the toys your not playing with so you can play with your new toy. You can't bring anything else out until your other toys are put away." 50% of the time, she will put it away if I keep her focused with reminders. The other 50% she will whine and fuss about it until I tell her "It will make mommy and daddy happy if you put your toys away. Big girls always put away toys when they are done playing with them." This usually does the trick.

pitterpatter129 · April 2013

KateLouise:
Yeah I think that's pretty standard too.
My friend recently introduced me to the idea of toys that are, "only one out at a time": toys. ie you have to pack one away before you can get another one out, basically anything with lots of smaller pieces or that make a big mess like blocks, craft supplies etc etc
It's really helped me remind myself to get LO to tidy up as she finishes with something, rather than just moving from one toy to another.

We keep the messy things with lots of parts (or way too much noise) in a locked closet! They are by permission only toys for my sanity!

Most little kids need a lot of specific instruction to pick up. However, I have found that when the choice is to help me or sit in time-out and watch me do it all, he suddenly has a much better grasp on the clean-up concept. He 2.5.

nosoup4u · April 2013

Clean up.time is like pulling teeth in ourhouse. Asking them which toy they are going to get, after you announce what you're picking up might be a good strategy to try. We also have gone back to cleaning the toy room as the first step in bedtime, it helps to do it at the same time every day.

How much does your 2.5 or 3 year old clean up?

Re: How much does your 2.5 or 3 year old clean up?

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