Clean Up Time

Now that we have celebrated the holidays and opened all the presents, it’s time to put AWAY the toys. Cleaning up can be a pleasure, or a chore, or an argument. What steps help make clean up a pleasure? Step one: set aside a time of day, every day, to put away the toys. Don’t rush. Step two: have a place to put the toys: books and puzzles on the same shelf, dolls and doll clothes in a bin, blocks together by size or kind, whatever works at your house. Step three: everybody help. Step four: talk about how much fun it was to play with that toy, dance, and sing. Keep pleasant. Edie just keeps singing “Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer” while she gets the puzzle pieces ready for their box.