re: toddler wont pick up toys

Quoting Meg ♥:" Does he understand races? Such as "Here, let's play a game! Lets RACE to see who can put the toys away ... [snip!] ... through with whatever "threat" you place. He will learn, but remember he is only 3. It may take some time for him to get it. "

okay thanks!
i will try the race thing in the morning, and if we have to clean up again tomorrow night i will tell him the toys are going away for a while if he cant pick them up. i hope one or the other works. our house is permanently a disaster area lol. those little blocks hurt  

Quoting cunning cuniculi:" okay thanks! i will try the race thing in the morning, and if we have to clean up again tomorrow night ... [snip!] ... he cant pick them up. i hope one or the other works. our house is permanently a disaster area lol. those little blocks hurt  "

Good luck to you!

I know blocks and cars hurt.... I've stepped on my fair share. Ick. lol

Quoting cunning cuniculi:" you do daycare? i think this would be good too, minimizing mess and rotating toys so they actually ... [snip!] ... for daycare they have time limits too right? its not like they can be like "not yet" (logans new favorite phrase >.>)"

I havent in a few year. I was certified in high school ((which we had to work in day care centers for our hours of experience))and I lived with my grandma that did at home care.

What we did was made sure there was always a transition and routine. For example, "When the timer goes off, in five minutes, it is time to clean up." Two minutes later..."Clean up is in two more minutes." That is just to let them know what time is to come and to be aware it's getting closer. Clean up would always be before an activity, such as circle time or a craft, at around the same time every day. So...it would be like, before lunch/nap at home every day. It helps a lot if it is before their favorite thing to do..like paint or go outside.

Another thing that would help them would be to print a label to tape where the certain item belongs. For example, all the legos go into the label that has the lego picture on it.

I would strongly advise the less access to all the toys and just rotating.

^^Sorry if that was hard to read. I drank a little tonight. lol

Quoting JessieLeeAnne:" ^^Sorry if that was hard to read. I drank a little tonight. lol "

haha couldn't even tell, sounded legit to me! haha

the timer is definitely a good idea i will try to find one when i go to the store. i think it would be better if he had some sort of time structure to it.
the labels too, that would make it more fun.


thanks for all the advice!

How is it going?

Quoting Meg ♥:" How is it going? "

okay hah we did end up taking a good amount away, i think he was overwhelmed with how many different sets there were when they got mixed together and stuff. he has only asked for one set of blocks once, hasnt cared so much about the rest.

what we did was say he had five minutes to pick up some set, and if he didnt we would take it away, also because it was lunch time and time to go visit a friend we said he would have to finish cleaning before lunch. well five min went by so i took that set away, and then said the next set...he still didnt pick anything up so that one got taken away.
by the third he got it, i didnt think he did but i said five minutes and after a couple moping around he all of a sudden said "five minutes" (I didnt even think he would understand that) and put them away, then asked for lunch lol

I think the post before about only leaving a few toys out at a time will help a lot. i think he just gets overwhelmed with the different sets...

thanks for all your advise