It is the bane of my existence! UGH! I have one dcg who refuses to clean. Unless I stand there and watch her and constantly tell her to put the toy away and stop playing with EACH TOY SHE PICKS UP! The big kids play downstairs. I am not down there at all times. If the babies are sleeping, the toddlers and I go down and play with them. But if the babies are awake, the big kids (4+) play downstairs and I have the monitor on (monitor includes a camera). The dcg is constantly into toys that are off limits (off limits because they don't clean up, so I put a bunch of toys on a storage bookshelf and put a sheet over it and told them the toys were off limits). She is SUPER smart, she knows that she isn't supposed to be into them. Also, I have a shelf all the way around my downstairs where I have "my pretties". Nothing that can hurt any of them, just little thing to make it homey and pretty down there. MY stuff. She is the only one that is constantly getting into them too. I am just at a loss as to what to do with her. I made her stay up with me and the babies for a week thinking that her having to play with the baby stuff and be quiet when the babies were sleeping would do it. Nope. I have made her clean up EVERYTHING at nap time while the rest of the kids watch a movie. Still hasn't made a difference. We have a prize box that the kids get to choose out of if they are good that day and she LOVES it and that is taken away. I am beginning to think she has ODD. I just termed a kid that had that, I do NOT want another! UGH! Any suggestions?!

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Here are a couple articles that may offer some ideas:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4721509_kids...heir-toys.html

http://www.professorshouse.com/Famil...up-Their-Toys/

http://www.parenting.com/article/Tod...id-to-Clean-Up

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I have not read all the articles that Michael posted, but have you enforced the rule that when you are done playing with an item put it away before going to the next? What times of the day do you have the children clean up? Do you say they must clean up before lunch or before another activity that is fun for them? You could try to make "teams" for cleaning up and have it become a game. Put all the children's names on their picture (if they can't read) and have one child draw it and match up with who is on the card until everyone has a "partner" for cleaning. Then tell them that they are responsible to work as a team and clean up together and make sure their partner is helping them. Then, which ever teams do well will earn a sticker. This could be another type of reward system that will influence teamwork so her peers can help her clean. It usually works best for us if another child tells them to do something than us. lol

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I don't know if it was right or if it will help, but this summer when I had a girl who refused to clean, I told her that if she wouldn't help pick up the mess, then she couldn't help make the mess. I had her sit where she could see the rest of us but couldn't reach any toys and told her that she would sit there until either she was picked up or she decided to help clean. She sat for about five-ten minutes before giving in and helping clean. It worked; she never refused for me again. (And if she had sat there much more than twenty, thirty minutes I was going to call her mom to have her picked up early).

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We do clean up before story time/nap time; and I set a timer of 20 minutes for clean up. If they beat the timer together, they each get a little treat or a little prize. Also, if I notice that they are moving slowly or lacking motivation; I announce that whoever I see doing the best job cleaning up will get to pick the story for story time. Gets them all going EVERY time b/c it becomes a competition of who can do it faster!

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def. NOT ODD so thats good..sounds like she is just being stubborn because she knows your not watching her. most of my dck's wont clean up either or put things where they know they dont go just so that they are up . when they do that i go by and put ALL of it back on the floor and they have to do it RIGHT or no playing the next day....it worked for the most part

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I would pull all the kids out but her and let her clean it all up by herself. Give her like 30-45 before pick up time. Don't check on her, let her do it herself. If she still isn't done at pick up tell the parent, sorry, she refuses to pick up, so she can't leave until she does. Don't let the parent help. When they get tired of waiting on her each day, they will have a straight talk with her.

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We do clean up twice a day. Before lunch and before pick up time. We sing a "clean up" song while cleaning the playroom. They all enjoy this and I too assist the little ones in cleaning up, then praise them on what a good job they did and they feel proud of how nice and clean the playroom is.

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