It's amazing how many arguements you can have with the kids to pack up the toys, especially if they don't want to stop playing. My mum looks after children and had stumbled upon a little tune from watching a video which actually made it like a play game when cleaning

up. Usually she would give a count down of when they needed to pack up so that they knew to finish their game they were plyaing, like reminding them that they had 20mins left then 10mins left etc. But even then there were sometimes dramas.

Well thank you Barney the dinosaur and that "Clean up" song. Now even i start singing it and the kids start tidying up and packing away their toys, it's now just another game we play and they follow.

Mind you it does work better for the younger kids, but if you get them in the habit earlier then it's easier to get them to do so when they are older.

Hope this works for you

In response to the comments I’ve received for this article, I’ve Googled the cleanup song.

 

The Lyrics are:

 

“Clean up clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up clean up everybody do your
share“

It’s very repetitive as it keeps going in a round until the children have finished packing away the toys etc. so it is very easy for children to memorise (and also for you too)

 

I initially had the song on one of the videos I have at home, but I did a search on YouTube and found the following link which you can hear the song. It’s very easy, enjoy:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz-3Kxx3EQY