What happens when you make the dreaded announcement to your kids that it's time to clean up? If your kids are anything like mine there was begging for five more minutes, tears, tantrums...well most likely you've experienced it so no need to keep the list going. I have a two year old and I can honestly say he is THE BEST at cleaning up his toys.
"Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov was a song I played in between centers when I was a first grade teacher. When I was training my students I asked them how bumblebee's move and work. Fast. Quick. Focused. I would point out that bee's don't just hum around for no reason they are ALWAYS working hard to make honey or perform their task in the hive. They don't get distracted. I would then have them do simple tasks "like a bee" while I played this song (put away crayons, books, get your backpack...etc). During our center training I would have them transition to their next center to this song and the goal was to be cleaned up and ready for the next center before the song was over. It also served as a good cue that, that rotation was over and it was time to transition. My kids loved it and I loved it because it wasn't a cheesy song that got caught in my head all day that would drive me crazy....baby shark anyone? ;)
Now that I am not teaching at a school anymore and have kids of my own I have used this song as our clean up song. Sometimes we just expect kids to just know how to do things, like putting toys away...but it's important to take the time to teach them how. Kids get overwhelmed very easy and if they don't know exactly how to do it, a simple task can just seem impossible to them. When we first started I would clean up right next to my toddler and go as fast as I could to try and beat him. Whenever it's time to clean up I will usually give a two minute warning and then when two minutes is up I just turn this song on my phone. I now hardly ever have to clean up with him the whole time. The other day he had a bunch of his train tracks and cars out and I asked him, "Will you pick up the family room so Mom can vacuum while I put the baby down?" I turned our "clean up song on", I left him there and didn't have super high expectations that it would be completely clean when I returned. I am not even kidding I came back to a SPOTLESS living room, it seriously looked like I cleaned it. I was amazed.
I have a shortened version on my phone that is only about 1:30 long that I bought off iTunes, the full version would be nice too because sometimes it takes a little bit longer than two minutes to clean up hours worth of play!
Just as my dear friend Mary Poppins says, "And SNAP the jobs a game!"