Hellobee Boards

@mrbee: I was sitting here trying to answering that very question - I cant remember!!

Haha. No.

She puts things away, dumps them out, puts them back, dumps them out.... And then moves on to another box of toys to spread evenly across the floor.

HA HA HA....

When we tell her too.

with the 4YO, she will help most times willingly put things away, and sometimes just put things away automatically, so I really try to compliment and reward her when she does that. I try to do the 1 toy/activity at a time rule, but with the 21 month old running around, doesn't always work, since the 4YO complains at times on why she has to help clean the younger one's mess. The 21 month old sometimes helps me put things away but most times no.

Not yet...i plan to start enforcing this when he is 2. Maybe clean up before lunch and clean up before bed.

He used to, not anymore! (4 year old) We have a job chart now... he earns a sticker and with multiple stickers he earns prizes. That works pretty well, except when he's far from a prize he's not motivated. Now that we're on our 3rd or so job chart, I've changed the rules... when I ask him to clean up, he has to do it (he doesn't have the option to say no). But he still earns his sticker.

My two year old? Haha......

Yes, started really early and she loves putting things away (DD is 23 months). We also have her put her clothes in the hamper when we undress her, put her shoes away on the shoe rack too

I haven't enforced the rule, but if I ask my 27 month old she will definitely help me. We have a different system in place to prevent the mess. We have her toys in a mesh bag that is placed in a large canvas cubby. This way she can only play with one set of toys at a time before cleaning up and moving on to another set of toys

I am pretty relaxed about leaving toys out, we have a set of train tracks set up on the floor in the playroom, for example...that doesn't get picked up every night.

Yep, its a rule in our house. No screentime, going outside, or mommy or daddy playing with her until she cleans up her mess. If she is playing independently she can make as big of a mess as she wants but she will eventually have to clean it all up. Sometimes its a struggle, especially if she spends a weekend with grandparents because she gets spoiled.

Yes, usually. She throws everything into a box and then yells "Ta Da!!!" and if I don't clap, she repeats over and over... "TA DA mama!!" until I applaud her good work.

@Mrs. Lion: I would say a little after a year old we started showing her how to clean up. By 18 months she would do it without asking (cause she knew she would get Bubble Guppies out of it!), now that she's over 2 it can be a little trickier to get her to do it, but it eventually gets done! I almost always offer to help unless she purposely makes a huge mess and knows she wasn't supposed to.

@mrbee: Sorry to hear that it is no longer working. I remember that at a lot of friends' houses there were rules like @Lindsay05: described. I guess you have to be careful what kind of rules you make for what kind of children though because you don't want a child that already doesn't like to eat be able to extend the time until dinner or blackmail you by not cleaning up etc. Hope that makes sense...

@Pumuckl: Trust me, we have had that issue before. But that will happen with everything. For example, my LO suddenly has to all of a sudden have to use the potty during every meal. They figure how to get around everything.