How in the world to you get a 3 1/2 year old to clean up anything in less than an hour?
I have tried setting a timer and told her to clean up one thing in a 3 minute time period. IT NEVER GETS DONE! I give her specific things to clean up, one at a time, and she cannot focus on that to save her life! I even stand at her door and guide her from thing to thing since she is easily distracted but she will not move! Sometimes it is an obedience issue, sometimes it is just a distracted issue. I told her to put these clock pieces back in the puzzle and I set the timer for 3 minutes. She proceded to put 3 of them back and then started making one of them the mommy, one was the daddy, etc... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Can someone give me some ideas??!!!
We got home from the store one day and she had taken off her socks and boots in the car. I told her to put her socks and shoes back on right away. I was able to take our 3 loads of stuff into the house, take Eliza in and put her down for nap, came back out to the van and she STILL did not have them on! She was playing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was like 10 minutes I think!!!!!!!!!!!
Please help!
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4 comments:
Clean up before a meal? or snack? and no eating till the task is done?
Sarah did this, then made you and Jen clean up while she played, and I never noticed it till she was 4 when the preschool teacher asked me if she cleaned up at home. I had to litterally take her hands and guide them to clean up till it bacame a habit for her. Little girls learn early that cleaning up is NOT fun.. ha ha
Hey friend!
Marlaina went through something similar (and continues to struggle with distractions). It may sound harsh, but we began taking away things that she wasn't able to clean up. We pared things down to almost nothing, and when she could prove that she was able to take care of her things, she could choose something to bring back. That worked pretty well, but I still have to clean with her and try to make it a game- races against me, races to get things done before Daddy gets home, and races against Caleb.
I remember one time wanting to teach her to empty the dryer for me. To make it fun, I pitched her into the dryer and had her push stuff out to me. It's still one of her favorite tasks.
God certainly blessed me with Caleb, though. He lives to clean! Just like his dad... :)
Good luck to you! Parenting is tough- hang in there! Baby steps....
We play "I spy" in our house when it's time to clean up. Anna (who HATES to clean) is so obsessed with finding the item I'm spying that she doesn't realize she's cleaning (I will play along every 3 toys, to keep things going).
The other idea (which sounds backwards I know) is to make more of a mess in order to get them to clean. I find if there are 2 puzzles out, I will take out 3 more puzzles. I dump out ALL of the pieces from the 5 puzzles into a basket, lay the puzzle boards out on the floor and say GO. Teddy and Anna compete to see who can finish a puzzle first :-)
It's amazing that she isn't as clean-oriented as her mother. ; )
Unfortunately, I think she gets that from me...
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