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learning to help clean up?

401 views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Ell-Bell 
#1 ·
DD and I go to Gymboree class every week and I am saddened that she is THE ONLY child in the class that won't help clean up when it's time to put toys away. She won't help at home either. At the end of the day, before bath and bedtime stuff, we try to get her to help. We sing a cleaning up song. We model what we want her to do, we hand her a specific item and ask her to put it in the bucket/box/whatever, try to make it a game, and nothing works. She won't help at all pretty much ever. Once in a blue moon we can get her to put one item in the box and we give her lots of praise for it. I know that she understands what to do but she's choosing not to do it. Any more ideas or do we just keep trucking along and wait it out, hoping she gets into it eventually?
 
#2 ·
I really wouldn't worry about it yet - she's only young.

Millie is nearly 2 and does help tidy but she's that bit older. Thinking abbout it, when she was your dd's age she would probably only put one thing away at a time.

We did all the things you're doing - made it a game and heaped lots of praise on her when she did.

One thing I would suggest is maybe "making" her tidy the same toy (books perhaps), rather than something different each time for a while and you do the rest and not make a big deal if she doesn't cooperate but make a big fuss when she does.

hope that all makes sense!
 
#3 ·
She is still very young, so lots of time for her to get it. I would keep doing what you are doing.

And expect there to be some push and pull for some time. DD is 2 1/2 and we clean up before going up for bedtime. Some nights work great. Some not so great. I pick two songs to play for clean up time (loud dance music works for us) and everyone in the family cleans during that time. OK< DS usually actually destroys cleaning but he'll figure it out too. I ask her to focus on one thing. Put all the big books in the basket. Put all the play food in the basket. Put all the small books on the bookshelf. Put the hand puppets in the drawer.

We have also started doing some clean up during the day if it gets to disastrous. So if she wants to read a book, I'll say - "Let's clean up all the legos first. Then we'll have room to sit." It's just started working.
 
#4 ·
A one year old? Nah, not yet. We only ever modelled cleaning up, and dd has been insistent in helping since 18 months. She comes running when we open the dishwasher and laughs giddily when we bring in a basket of clothes to fold. It will come, just model and give the opportunity without pressure.
 
#5 ·
I wouldn't worry about it either. At 2 it's not important in her world that the toys get cleaned up. I think you can model cleaning up for her, just by starting to do it yourself and not pressuring her. I also have noticed that I get a better response from my 2 year old when I word it in a statement instead of a question. For example instead of saying, "Will you help me clean up?" or "You want to help clean up the toys?" I just say, "Let's clean up!" or "It's time to clean up." Sometimes he helps, sometimes he doesn't. No biggie, he'll learn!
 
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