Time to Pick Up Toys!

When I say those 5 little words to my kids it elicits the most dramatic groans and moans.  I feel like my children could win an oscar with their acting.  I'm sure all parents could relate to this problem.  No kids like cleaning up toys or cleaning their room.  I remember despising that job as a child and I don't remember how my mother motivated us to pick up our toys.  We must have done it, because here I am, I wasn't lost in a mountain of toys in my childhood.

Today I wanted to share three games that we use to motivate good toy picker-upers.

Game #1 - I Spy

I'm sure all of you have played the game "I Spy" in order to keep your toddlers entertained.  You say "I spy with my little eye, something blue" and then the child names all the blue things they can see until they find the blue thing you have chosen.  When I'm feeling really lazy and I have extra time we play I Spy the cleaning version.  I will sit on the couch in the school room and say "I spy with my little eye, something orange."  The kids then run around picking up toys that are orange and putting them away.  If they pick the same toy I picked they get to be the person sitting on the couch saying "I spy".  The person who is "it" changes every turn.  The kids are motivated to put things away because they want to be the one sitting on the couch.  The only problem with this game is that it can take a very long time to get a room cleaned.

Game #2 - What's Missing

This is a common cleaning up game.  One person goes out of the room and the people remaining put away one, or two, or five! things.  Then the person who was outside the room comes back inside and guesses what everyone else put away.  My kids get bored with this game pretty quick, but it's good to have the bag of tricks anyway.  We can't do the same thing every day...unfortunately.

Game #3 - The Job Bucket

Get a bowl, bucket, whatever.  Get a bunch of pieces of paper.  I cut 3x5 cards in half with my paper cutter.  (The prep on this game seems like a lot, but it's worth it, and it doesn't take as long as it seems.)  Then I decide which rooms I'm going to clean.  I stand at the door of those rooms and on each slip of paper write down one thing (or one group of things) that needs to be put away.  I fold the papers in half and drop them in my bucket.  For example I'll write down "clothes in Nia's room", "hair clips", "pop beads", "books on floor", "15 pieces of trash", or "little people".  Once I've written down everything, or pretty much everything, from one room I go to the next room.  I try and make the jobs about the same size, but some are small and some are much larger.  I sit the kids down around the bucket and say "go!".  We all pull out a chore and read what it is.  We run to put that thing away and then come back and get another chore.  Each chore completed goes into our pockets.  If the chore doesn't specify a room they have to clean up all of that item in all the rooms we're working on.  I offer a reward to anyone who gets more chore tickets than me by the time they are all gone.  I have only one reader in the family, so the littlin's are coming running up to me the whole time asking me to read what is on their ticket.  I don't mind that, everyone's cleaning, after all! This is the fastest game, but you can't play it every day, but it's one of my favorites.

Game #4 - M&M Cleaning

Ok, I said I'd only tell three games, so this a bonus!  I've found that the kids can get frustrated because they don't see much success when they're cleaning up, at times it seems to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r, especially for a 3 year old.  I've found a way to have instant success!  I get a laundry basket.  I tell the kids to pick everything up off the floor, or everything that is not where it belongs and put it into the laundry basket.  Wala!  Instantly clean room.  The only problem is that you now have a laundry basket full of stuff that needs to be put away.  No problem!  Offer the kids one M&M for each thing they put away from the basket.  If the basket is really full you can offer 1 M&M per 5 objects.  If you want to make it really fun you can require them to say something cute like, "I put away _____.  May I have an M&M please." to teach them to say "May I".  I usually just sit by the basket with a bag of M&M's and within no time at all the basket is empty and we're ready to go onto something else.

If you have any other ideas for cleaning up, please post them below.  I could always use some new ideas to spice up our life.