Author Topic: toy tidying routines - what do you do/what is reasonable?  (Read 2557 times)

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Offline *Becky*

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toy tidying routines - what do you do/what is reasonable?
« on: April 08, 2013, 07:03:21 am »
this is totally my fault I know but we don't really have a toy tidying system at the end of the day and I want to put one in place. I mean I want the kids more involved and to help out and i need to get it started and make it something we just 'do'.
Everything has a place in our house as it is small so it should be easy for them and i have a feeling M will be fine and just get on with it, H less so.
What do you do? What are the expectations? I have realised that some nights we involve them, some nights we don;t so we need to just set up an expectation that they will help.
Ideas?




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Offline cuckoochick

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Re: toy tidying routines - what do you do/what is reasonable?
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2013, 07:25:21 am »
Listening in. We are so not good at this. C is beginning to help out a lot more to tidy throughout the day and with encouragement and help will put one toy away before getting another out (so this totally depends upon what form I'm on really!!) but we could do with getting her to help tidy before she goes to bed as DH and I just tend to come down and blast tidy for 5-10mins. I think it would probably work best for us to out toys away just before dinner which would be difficult to do so I guess just after dinner as C currently watches Guess How Much I LOve You before her bath.




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Offline *Becky*

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Re: toy tidying routines - what do you do/what is reasonable?
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2013, 07:32:58 am »
DH and I just tend to come down and blast tidy for 5-10mins.
same here!




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Offline Bex09

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Re: toy tidying routines - what do you do/what is reasonable?
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2013, 07:58:36 am »
We used to do the blast tidy too and then, because DP tends to get in quite late, often it was just me doing it all. So at around 2 yrs I started involving C in tidying her toys away. So we have a couple of crates for the toys to go in and we started with playing games like who can put the most toys away the quickest, count how many toys you can put in the crate, can you find all of the Happyland people, etc. As long as we made a game of it (C is quite competitive though!) then she loved it.

C also loves stickers and has a coloured piece of paper up in her room that she sticks her stickers that she gets from nursery on. So we used to reward her tidying efforts with a sticker to go on her chart, which always encouraged her to help.

We do the tidy as part of our evening routine, so now C just does it without the games and stickers bless her. We have our dinner, C watches a little TV while I clean up the kitchen, put the dishwasher on, etc. Then when that is done the TV goes off and we have our toy tidy up. Once we are all tidy we go up for bath, story and bed.

IMO it is well worth implementing, there is nothing better than coming down once LO is in bed to a lovely clean and tidy house! So you can sit down and enjoy your evening, or start your BW time earlier! ;)



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Re: toy tidying routines - what do you do/what is reasonable?
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2013, 22:54:12 pm »
there is nothing better than coming down once LO is in bed to a lovely clean and tidy house! So you can sit down and enjoy your evening
Totally agree!

How's it going Becky? Did you come up with a routine?

DS has always been involved with tidy up, sometimes he needs a bit more encouragement than others but we never used stickers or any other reward, only that it is nice to keep our house nice so we can all enjoy it.  We don't have a strict 'one toy away before getting the next one out' rule because I believe some of the most interesting and creative play comes from combining different toys and activities, but we do have several times per day when we tidy.  So if the living room floor is full of mega blocks and DS now wants to get the music box out to play marching toddler band I first agree to the next game and then say we need to tidy the floor so we have as much marching space as possible and not hurt our feet standing on blocks.  Or if he has his table covered in something then wants to paint I agree first to the painting then say we need to make space on the table and he tidies really fast.  We do it together, sometimes I do more than DS, sometimes he does more than me, I do expect his help almost every time we tidy.  We also tidy before nap time and as part of our BT routine.  We do a full tidy at the beginning of BT hour, then he watches waybuloo for 20 mins whilst we run the bath give him meds etc.  if he really wants to get more toys out in that time it is very limited, I don't tell him off for getting something out but I wouldn't let him start painting or empty the mega blocks out again (but then he wouldn't do that because he knows the routine), he might get a book out to look at or one small toy for example.  I like this because it puts a break between tidy up and bath time, tidying up and then choosing a book to read together as a little snuggle time before bath would also do it.

i don't expect him to help 100% of the time. If he is poorly or teething and has had an upsetting tantrumy day I might still say we are tidying but accept that he might not be feeling particularly team spirited!  I have no problem bending the 'rules' and clearing up on my own once in a while, it's kind of like giving him a treat or helping him out when he isn't feeling himself.