Tidying up

I find I need the right wording. If I say can u help me please and we both do it then he'll help put them away. He won't just put them away himself. We've also now added it to his sleep time routine sheet (for both naps and night) but he still won't do it on his own so we do it together. He'll happily tidy up the dogs toys on his own tho!

I find I need to step in if I want my little one to tidy up just as she is about to get something else out, & then say something like if she wants to play with whatever she’s picked then she has to clear something away first. That tends to work after saying it a few times! 🫠

I agree with Cheryl regarding the wording. My little one's nursery told me they don't ever use the words "tidy up" because when they do the kids all just say no. Instead they say "Let's put things back in their places so we can find them when we want to play again later". I've found it works quite well. If I ask him where we should put things so that we can find them again later, he engages much more than if I just ask him to help me tidy up. Although don't get me wrong, I still end up tidying 90% of the toys myself.

I sing a little song I made up called ‘this is how we tidy up’ and do it with her and it works a treat (mostly) 🤣

@Steph good ideas thank you, we tried this and he was a bit more into it so fingers crossed 🤞