With a 1, 2, and 3 year old you wouldn't think I'd have much time for training at all! Then again, just about everything we did involved training them in some way. One particular area of training that Josh and I both had a part in was putting the toys away. Before they arrived for their second stay at our house I brainstormed an idea for making clean up time easier and more efficient.
The first time the kids were with us it was a nightmare trying to get them to pick up the toys. I also didn't even remember which bin I had which toy in, so there was no order to the clean up process, just throwing the toys in a random spot.
Here is what I came up with, though I am sure it is not a new idea by any means. I took a picture of the toys that belong in each bin and printed out the photo with the name of the toy and taped it to the bottom of the appropriate bin. Since I haven't finished buying all of the toys for our collection, not all of the bins are labeled yet, which caused some confusion.
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| still working on this but some bins are labeled and ready |
The beautiful thing was that after we showed them the photo inside the bin and how to put them inside, they seemed to understand it and actually enjoy it. In fact, on two different occasions Boy3 decided, on his own, to pick up the toys, without me asking him to!! I usually had them clean up during a transition such as right before a meal, bedtime, or going somewhere. I think he must have picked up on this because both times he decided to pick up were times when we were about to do something different.
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