Teaching Your Child How To Take Care of Their Toys

Written by Dr. Kimberly Dozier-Thornton

• Make Clean-ups Routine
  • For young toddlers, have clean up time at the end of the day at the same time of day as part of the daily routine
  • For children 3 and up, clean up after each task or activity before moving on to the next activity
• Keep the number of Toys Low
  • Limit how many toys are out each week to avoid an overwhelming number of choices
  • Rotate the toys to reduce clutter and allow your child to enjoy them longer
• Be flexible
  • Keep a special corner for “projects in progress” thus respecting your child’s desire to come back to it yet keeping it contained
• Make It Fun
  • Turn cleaning up into a fun game and have a sing-a-long clean up song
  • Make it a race: can you clean up 10 items before the timer goes off?
  • Make it a game: can you pick up all the green toys?
• Break up the work
  • Tackle areas in sections
  • Share the work by tackling the tougher jobs and letting your little one handle the age appropriate tasks
• Everything has its place
  • Keep chaos under control by having designated areas, bins and shelves for certain toys
• Praise is Everything
  • Be sure to acknowledge their hard work and motivate them to do it again the next day