Wanted to Ask This on the "I'm Sick" Thread

[MsMe]

I let everyone have at it with all of the toys, but they are all expected to help put them away every time we leave the room. I sometimes assign jobs to each one (Johnny, you are in charge of cleaning up all the food, etc) if I notice that they are getting distracted.

Even the 2 year olds know how to pick up. Heck, even my 16 month old knows that when we sing the clean up song she starts cleaning up.

I NEVER help pick up EVER. I wil also assign tasks if I see them get distracted. I don't stay in teh room whild they pick up. ever. I am always on to the next project or luch and they follow when it is finished. If they take too long cleaning up they get a reminder every few minuts and we start the activity/lunch without them.

[karen]

While working in rooms with 20+ children this is what I have learned the chaos in these rooms drove me nuts and I was the one in charge! When I allowed children to freely choose toys and move from area to area without any structure chaos broke out and I and my staff were doing incident reports constantly.
NOW....
I always pick out what toys are being played with so maybe 1 or 2 bins at a time. I do a count down of 5 minutes if I forget to set tickety tock the timer. When tickety tock goes off it's clean up time.
Sing clean up songs or burn the clean up song onto a cd and it stays on until everything is put away.
I look around the room and say things like "Oh look I see my friend Jack is cleaning up yay Jack! I say it to everyone then I get to the non cleaner upper and I say to them " What does Miss Karen want you to do" I take child by hand and help them clean up I just start handing toys to him and say things like Oh I forgot where this goes can you show me. If they say they can't I say yes you can! Being stern and at eye level. And if still not working they will get a bin of toys to clean up until they learn that we all work together as a team!