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CCJD
05-05-2009, 09:34 AM
How do you all encourage the children in your setting to tidy up? I have 3 mindees here, a 3 yr old and two 18month olds, the 3yr old and one of the younger ones are fantastic and take great pride in tidying up and putting things in the right boxes but one child simply refuses. I heap praises and cuddles on the co-operative two making a real point of ignoring the other's refusal but this doesn't seem to have much effect. The younger one is too young to understand sticker/reward charts but knows perfectly well what is expected at tidying up time and is simply refusing. So far havnt had any other behavioural issues with this child - is this a first sign that I have a defiant one on my hands:(

Minstrel
05-05-2009, 09:44 AM
could you make it into a game with a reward at the end.

ie the child who collects the most cars up gets to choose the next activity?

FizzysFriends
05-05-2009, 09:55 AM
When DD was at nursery they had a song (think it was old macdonald) and when that played everyone tidied up and if they finished before the song they danced to the rest of it. You could try that.

Or how about only getting 1 box of toys out and they all have to put away what they were playing with before anything else comes out?

I have one that wont tidy up. At the end of the day they are all allocated something to put away and she wouldn't and was still just standing there when mom came and I told mom she wasn't ready and had to put the toys away first, after 5 mins of siblings getting cuddles off mom she did tidy up.

Mouse
05-05-2009, 10:19 AM
I'd ignore it. 18 months is still young, but it's quite common at that age for them to refuse to do things. I'm sure they all go through the phase of refusing to say 'thank you', even though you know very well that they can say it. The more insistent you get, the more stubborn they get! It can become a real battle of wills waiting to see who cracks first! In my experience, if a child is refusing to say 'thank you' they would rather go without than say it!

Carry on what you're doing with the others & don't even try to get the other one to do it. Make a game of it - get it all tidied away before a song finishes, say 'on your marks, get set, go' etc. I bet that sooner or later the other one will join in. Save yourself the stress of trying to get the child to tidy up. Be relaxed about it & I'm sure it'll happen when he/she's ready.

aly
05-05-2009, 12:33 PM
How do you all encourage the children in your setting to tidy up? I have 3 mindees here, a 3 yr old and two 18month olds, the 3yr old and one of the younger ones are fantastic and take great pride in tidying up and putting things in the right boxes but one child simply refuses. I heap praises and cuddles on the co-operative two making a real point of ignoring the other's refusal but this doesn't seem to have much effect. The younger one is too young to understand sticker/reward charts but knows perfectly well what is expected at tidying up time and is simply refusing. So far havnt had any other behavioural issues with this child - is this a first sign that I have a defiant one on my hands:(
i got my 4 yo, 20mth old and 21mth mindee abd e yr mindee to tidy up...the older ones know anyway...i make it into a game...who is the quickest etc

HENNY
05-05-2009, 03:06 PM
I agree with Mouse.Bob The Builder is a good tidying awawy song:)

Curly Quavers
05-05-2009, 03:26 PM
You could try making it in to a race.

sweets
05-05-2009, 03:58 PM
i sometimes put the flight of the bumble bee music on at tidy up time. It prob won't work with an 18mnth old but the older ones love it!

Alibali
05-05-2009, 04:07 PM
Clean up Clean up
Everybody everywhere
Clean up, clean up
everybody do their share

Sing it often and they'll start singing while tidying:)

Chatterbox Childcare
05-05-2009, 05:02 PM
The older ones tidy up and help with the younger ones and I think they all learn from each other.

I also make a game of it and we tidy away before we get "..." out and they are all so enthusiastic they do it.

singlewiththree
05-05-2009, 06:36 PM
Clean up Clean up
Everybody everywhere
Clean up, clean up
everybody do their share

Sing it often and they'll start singing while tidying:)

We sing this too and it really gets them moving. Its from cbeebies at the very beginning if I remember rightly.

sonia ann
05-05-2009, 06:47 PM
http://www.mrdavemoran.com/

Our local playgroup plays Dave's Time to Tidy Up Song.....it's quite catchy and certainly works there ....have yet to try it on my lot:)

mushpea
05-05-2009, 07:28 PM
mine are all quite good at tidying at the moment but i did used to have 2 4yrolds one who was great at tidying and the other who very slowly put one item in the box at a time so that the other one did most of the work. in the end i split the toys in to two piles and they had to put their pile away before they could get the next thing out.