After playing, children normally leave their toys scattered everywhere. Like many parents, I always felt tired to go after my kids and get them pick up their toys day after day. Janet Milliron shared that her mother “invented a game that had the house clean, and the dirty clothes in the laundry hamper in ten minutes flat.” She wisely integrated the tidy up job with the idea of treasure hunt and positive reinforcement strategy. Have a look at her “Time for the Ten minute-Ten-cent pickup!” :

After dinner we would brush our teeth and put our PJ’s on; Mom would be hiding quarters in a few pockets, a treat in someone’s pile of toys, or a note saying “You get to choose the story tonight” pinned to a sock. Then she would say “Time for the Ten minute-Ten-cent pickup!”

I think it’s marvelous and works for getting kids to clean up everything happily!

Clean Up Toys Game [Parenting Humor]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 16th, 2006 at 7:44 pm and is filed under Crafts and Activities, How-to Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.