When we were getting overwhelmed with lots of toys and no room, we set up a box and a garbage bag, and told DS(then about 3 1/2) that we needed to go through his toys. We told him about a little boy near us who had lost all his toys in a fire.(It really had happened locally, but you can always make something up… Along the lines of a child their age who has no toys due to some great tragedy)… We told him we needed to throw out the broken ones, and put all the toys he no longer played with in a box to give to the little boy who lost all his toys. He flung sooooo many toys all by himself! I actually had to pull a bunch of things back out cuz I knew he’d miss them later if he really gave it all away…. After that, we have made it a routine to go through the toys once a month, and get rid of all the broken ones, and donate anything they don’t like playing with anymore…
The other thing I do is use rewards…. Like, We have to clean up the puzzles before we can play tickle-chase (we chase each other around the house for about 15 minutes before bedtime… Running, Tickles and rough housing… And the kids are asleep within 30 minutes of going to bed most nights) Or if you want to help me make cookies, we have to clean up the toys.
I’ve found with my kids just telling them, pick up the toys doesn’t work. I have to say, pick up that car and put it away. Good job! Now pick up the book, and put it away. Always give praise for a job done, whether it was to your standards of done or not…. So what if the books aren’t arranged by size or alpabetized anymore. They are put away on the shelf that’s what matters. So what if the cars and the space toys are all mixed up… At least they are all in bins on the shelf and not all over the floor…. So what if the Little people aren’t arranged just so on the shelves. They are off the floor, that’s what matters. (can you tell I struggle with some of this?? *S*)
Like I’ve written in the past… I love watching nanny911… The one thing I have noticed is that Nannies always work more on the parents then on the kids. Once the parents get with the program – the house rules, the schedule, the disicpline. Then nannies also go through messy play rooms occasionally to get rid of the junk…. But for the most part… They spend the hour teaching the parents how to be parents… And even though my kids are fairly well-behaved… I always some kind of nugget of wisdom in the show… That plus the good feeling I get from knowing that there is no way my kids are *that* bad…. Makes it worthwhile to me to watch the show…
Just thoughts I had this morning…. HTH Someone out there…