How can I teach a 2 1/2 child to clean up after his mess?

Question

I help take care of my 2 1/2 year old nephew and he plays with toys and after he is done he leaves them all over the place. And I have to clean up after him. So, how Can I teach my nephew to clean after his mess?


The child is my nephew

Answer 1

Watch him and when you see he is going for another toy, remind him to put away the one he was just playing with. Get a special box/container for his toys and put it in the living room (or wherever his toys are). Call it "(Nephew's name) Toy Box" and tell him that is his box where his toys go. When he puts his toys away make sure to praise him for it and tell him "thank you for putting away your toys".

Answer 2

My daughter is only 15 months and she is already learning to pick up her toys. I started out making a game of it putting her toys in her toy box. Now it's more of a routine for us. Before we go bye-bye and before we read stories at bedtime, we pick up the toys. The key is to be consistent and don't make it an order/command to do it. Children learn from example, so if you do it with him, he will want to do it. If you are just ordering him to do it, he will most likely rebel. It's always good to treat children with respect and get down on their level and talk to them in a calm voice. You will get a much better response than yelling at them. (I'm not saying you do that, just wanted to make sure I got my point across). Also, don't expect too much in the beginning, it will take a little while. He's still just a little guy yet. Good luck!

Answer 3

Try a song....you can make it up as you go along, maybe to the tune of something familiar. This can then become your special "clean up" song to be used each time you pick up toys. It may not work at first, but once he watches you having fun while doing the clean up, he may get the hint that its fun too!

Answer 4

Make cleaning up a part of the routine. Also you can make it into a kind of game. If neither of those seems to work, set up a reward system like a gold star every time he helps pick up toys. It might take him awhile to learn, but he'll come around. Always ask him to help, eventually he'll figure out it's expected of him.

Answer 5

try to make the fact of claning the mess up funny. If your child find it nice and interesting he would ever do it!
For example, try to play with him together and when finished the game, clean the mess together, so he would understand that if he alone, or with more people are playing, at the end, they (must) have to leave everything as clean as the begining.

Answer 6

Do a fun cleanup song or make cleanup a play game, I did that with my daughter and it work great 2 year old's are at a stage where they hate to listen to anyone, but making it a game would help him to get it done!

Answer 7

TELL HIM IF HE IS GOING TO PLAY WITH TOYS HE HAS TO CLEAN THEM UP ALSO UNLESS HE CAN NOT PLAY WITH THEM. SO LET HIM GET ONE TOY AND THEN PUT IT BACK BEFORE HE CAN GET ANOTHER ONE. ONCE HE LEARN THAT ROUTINE, THEN HE WILL DO THAT WITH ALL THE TOYS.

Answer 8

Clean side by side with your child, make it a fun thing with lots of praise.

Answer 9

make a sticker chart. he earns a sticker for each day that he cleaned up and if he earns so many stickers durnig that week, he gets a special prize. (toy, museum, zoo, park..etc). Also help, but don't help until he starts cleaning first.

Answer 10

this is what you should do...
Grab a bag and tell him to clean up, and make it sound tense and fun! so he'll laugh, if that dosent work, then tell him if he dosent clean up, then he won't get a candy, or an ice cream,(like a small treat), so then once hes done, give him half of a hersey bar or something small!