Info about Toys
How to Encourage Your Children to Clean Up Their Toys
Toys multiply—fast. It seems like only yesterday when you could fit all your baby's toys into a single basket or box. Now that a few birthdays and Christmases have come and gone, you know you've got a house somewhere if you could only find it under all those Legos.
Kids love toys, and parents love giving toys to their children. But just like anything else, toys can end up becoming things that kids learn to bargain with, fight over, beg for, and refuse to tidy up. Toys can become an Issue.
Many parents at some stage or another have given their kids toys because they feel guilty about not spending more time with them. Others routinely hand out new treats as either a bribe or reward for halfway decent behavior. None of this has much to do with playing or learning through play. It has a lot to do with your emotions. If you use toys in this way, you'll be setting up a situation where your child knows he can manipulate you.
Small children need toys to play with, but they don't need expensive toys and they don't need every toy in the toyshop. It's not just a question of "learning to appreciate what they've got." Older kids do need to be taught to respect their belongings, but that's much too grown-up a notion for a two-year-old. When small children find themselves in the position where they're surrounded by hundreds of toys, all within reach, what they're facing is literally hundreds of choices in solid form. They may have lots of toys, but they don't all have to be out at the same time. Rotating toys in and out of view gives small children, who can't choose between too many options, the chance to focus a little better on their play and develop their powers of concentration. They won't feel so overwhelmed by what's on offer. At a later date, you can bring out the toys you have put away, and they will greet them with as much excitement as if they were new. An added advantage of this strategy is that tidying up will be much easier.
When your home looks like a bomb-site two minutes after you've tidied up, the temptation can be to leave it that way. Many parents, faced with the never-ending struggle to put things away or get their kids to pick up after themselves, decide it's easier to live with chaos for the time being. The trouble is that the chaos sometimes lasts for years. It doesn't have to be that way—and it shouldn't be that way.
Some parents leave the mess because they don't want to spend time tidying up. What they forget is that mess itself is time-consuming and can even be expensive, if you're going to have to spend hours looking for missing pieces of jigsaws or fork out more money to buy new ones. A chaotic messy environment tells children that they don't have to respect their belongings. It also tells them that they don't have to respect yours.
When there are toys spread over every surface, your child will find it difficult to accept that there is anywhere in the home or anything in the home you might want to call your own. I've also noticed that mess makes discipline almost impossible to enforce. I'm not saying you should keep things neat as a pin and rush around constantly plumping up the cushions. But basic order is essential—kids can't learn anything when they're surrounded by chaos.
You can't expect a toddler to be tidy or to clean up after herself. But you can get her to join in when you tidy up—another good use for the Involvement Technique. Plenty of praise works wonders. The toy doesn't have to be in the right box. All the toys don't have to be picked up. Simply making it fun and getting them to join in lays down a good foundation for later. Sort different types of toys or equipment into different colored boxes—she'll find it easier to help that way. Make it a game: "Who can pick up the fastest?" Older kids need to know that you have rules about mess and that there are places in the home where you don't want toys underfoot all the time. Here's how to cope:
Make tidying up into a game. Involve your child and give him praise when he helps.
Don't set unreasonably high standards.
Save yourself extra work by not allowing every single toy to be out at once. Rotate toys in and out of view.
Keep art materials, pens, markers and paints well out of reach. Supervise messy or creative play in an area where cleaning up is easy.
Explain the rules about tidying up, but don't expect perfection.
You can leave toys out in a playroom all day, or even tidy up every other day. You can always close the door on the chaos. But don't leave the mess for months.