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
How to Teach Toddlers to Pick Up Their Toys (whattoexpect.com)