Can You Get Your 4 Year Old To Clean Up?

Having children means having a least the occasional mess, but the sooner you teach your child to clean up after himself, the better your family wellness will be. Picking up toys, putting clothes in the hamper, hanging up towels and washcloths and putting dirty dishes in the sink are all well within his abilities and making it fun can ingrain the habit early on in your child.

Firstly, make cleaning up as easy and convenient as possible, as even for adults the task of cleaning up an entire room is a daunting task if you hardly know where to begin. Use bins or toy shelf labels so your child knows which category of toy goes where, making sure you save toy boxes for large toys that don’t fit easily on shelves or in bins, so smaller toys don’t disappear forever in a large toy box. You can also organise her clothes with bins, as they can hold shoes, mittens and hats, while hooks or pegs could hold outerwear.

Next, reward cleanup with a fun activities, rather than more toys or possessions that will only create more to clean up in the future. Try spending half an hour at the park, allowing a special food treat or going to the pet shop to look at the puppies – though don’t promise to bring one home! Short of that, 4 year olds also appreciate praise and appreciation for a job well done, so make sure you give them plenty of encouragement.

Not only does your child require praise, he also has a competitive streak and loves to show off what he can do. Make cleaning up a challenge or competition by setting a timer and putting two kids to work, to see who can pick up the most toys. This works best if you have children close in age and ability, but if you have one child, work out how much he could do in a set time and offer an appropriate reward for it.

Finally, remember that small people need small jobs to do and it’s not always realistic to expect your 4 year old, with her short attention span, to clear up an entire room alone in one session. You can prevent the problem for spreading in the first place by making it a rule that your child must put one toy away before taking out another, which is something many nursery schools already implement. If you want your child to clean up, she needs to have a small enough job to accomplish before she wants to give up.