Tuesday, May 18

Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody Clean Up!

The past week or so, things have been pretty relaxed around here when it comes to picking up toys. I honestly have no idea what the upstairs rooms in our house look like (and I don't want to!). One thing that has been working like a charm for us lately is to play some clean-up songs to help move things a long in the evening and get the downstairs a bit more presentable. Our favorites so far are The Wubbulous World of Dr Seuss Clean Up Song and The Happy Working Song from Enchanted. I anticipate that clean-up songs won't work forever (or even until the baby comes), but the important thing is that they are keeping us all sane right now!

Do you have a favorite way to get encourage happy cleaning in young children?

5 comments:

kori said...

Stickers!!! We have a sticker chart and at the end of the day if their toys are picked up they get to pick out stickers to put on it.

ladyscott said...

We have a clean up song, or a contest to see who can clean up the fastest. Daughter is still unaware of the meaning of the contest, but son thinks she understands so he does his best to beat her. Of course, he wins, she claps for him and they both get a little prize, usually one small piece of candy each. I use the contest on BIG messes only. The little messes get by with clean up songs or just a simple command.

Also, son is generally not allowed to pull out one set of toys until he puts away the set he's done with.

Matushka Anna said...

Hmm. Mine (except for the three-year-old) are really too old for clean up songs. Now that doesn't stop me from dragging out the familiar old, "Cleeean up! Cleeean up! Everybody everywhere! Cleean up! Cleeean up! Everybody do your share!" They roll their eyes and do it.

Races have always been fairly successful too (but only on big messes).

Anonymous said...

We do the "ten minute tidy." (Sometimes it only takes 5 minutes. I set the timer for 5 or 10 minutes and everyone goes as fast as they can to pick up. When the timer goes off, we're done...even if it's not completely picked up. I think that knowing there is an quick end in sight helps the kids.

Courtney said...

Sometimes we race or I'll use a timer. The effectiveness of each really depends on everyone's moods and the time of day.

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