Happy Spaces, Smiling Faces!

As I touched on last week, children having respect for their spaces and being responsible at an age appropriate level for cleaning up their own things are closely related.  When we take care of things we show that they have value to us.  These things that we have are of themselves not necessarily important, but when things are kept in good order the atmosphere of our homes is calmer and more pleasant.  Kids feel important when they are trusted to be responsible for their own things. 

As promised, here are some tips to help your child be successful in learning how to tidy up:

• Break it down into small steps.  Rather than direct your child to “clean up your room,” tell them to start by cleaning up all of the toy cars.  Once they’ve finished the first task, move onto the next (”clean up the toy dishes”).  These small successes give your child a direction to get moving in and the confidence to keep going. 
• Make it fun!  Cleaning up does not have to be a dreaded chore.  Have your toy cars zoom into the toybox, tuck the dolls in gently.  Singing a clean up song or listening to music as you work can make tidy up fun and fast. 
• Help your child and expect your child to help you.  Cleaning up together can be a great time to chat and connect. 
• Encourage your child to help you with your tasks around the house.  As they dust, sweep and tidy along with you they can learn an appreciation for and the skills to show respect and care for their home. 
• Set up a routine.  Build time into the flow of your day for clean up.  This will be different for each family.  Some people set  a rule where each activity or toy must be cleaned up before a new one can be started.  I find this works well for crafts and games, but for toys I find that this interrupts their imaginative play.  For that I find it best to make sure clean up happens each evening before bedtime routines or before supper.  Find what works best for you and make it part of every day. 

In this way, caring for your home becomes a family project and kids learn age appropriate responsibility and respect for their things.  Next week I’ll touch on an opposite idea…why it’s important for parents to play with and spend time with their kids. 

Teaching children respect for their rooms, toys and stuff is important.  Skills learned as a child will affect their behavior in this area as they grow older.

One key factor in teaching this respect to children of any age is to remember that our children “do what we do, not what we say.”  If we want our children to show respect for their environments, we must model this for them: picking up after ourselves, being organized, cleaning up one thing before moving on to the next, and showing appreciation for our homes and the things we own. 

As parents, we can set our kids up for success by using a few simple ideas:

• Limit the number of toys that are available to your child at a given time.  Less toys for younger kids, but you can increase the amount as they get older and are able to take greater responsibility for their things.  A good way to do this is to keep some toys in storage and to switch them around every once in a while or to put toys in separate bins and have your child select one or two bins to play with at a time. 
• Design your child’s area tastefully.  Keep it simple but fun - a space your child can feel is theirs (sense of ownership) and is worth keeping nice. 
• Assign a place to each thing.  This keeps a space from becoming cluttered and overwhelming.  It lets your child feel empowered to clean up.  Set things up so that your child is able to follow through.  If your method of organization is too complicated or detailed, your child may not even attempt to clean up for fear of failure/not doing it right. 
• Show your child the correct way to use their things.  Sometimes children break things or do not care properly for them because they have no idea what the item really is nor how to use it properly.   

These tips are a great start.  But remember, children are curious and adventurous; they learn by experimenting and exploring.  Things are bound to get broken or mixed up sometimes.   Next week I’ll share some further tips on how to involve your kids in tidying up and caring for their spaces. 

Mirroring is a great game for a parent to play with their infant.  The one thing babies love is to look at the face of his or her parent.  This is a basis of building trust, security and a relationship between parent and baby. 

Sometimes as a parent you hold your precious little one and wonder, “What next?”  It can be so overwhelming and you want to do it right.  But really, the most important thing to ‘do it right’ with your baby is to develop that strong attachment and security that you are there for them, you love them. 

A fun game to play with your infant is to sit face to face, perhaps with your baby on your knees facing you.  Then you mirror back to them the expressions that they are making.  As your baby grows and develops, so will the complexity and range of expressions you can use.  Eventually  you may even find the game has turned around and he or she is mirroring you! 

Our first weekly theme is Wild Animals.  Wild Animals are intriguing to young children.  My kids still remember our trip to the Metro Toronto Zoo last summer in vivid detail.  In fact, they keep begging me to take them back.  I just love our Wild Animals theme for this reason.  With bright colors and parades of fun animals such as monkeys, giraffes, elephants, bears, camels, and lions, it’s just like bringing the zoo home into your child’s home.  (Of course, without all the costs noise and mess of having real animals around!) 

There is so much flexibility in how to design a Wild Animal domain for your child(ren).  Go all out with bedding and drapes and pillows or just add some fun touches such as a wall border, clock or woven throw.  As you decorate your Wild Animals room, get your child involved by coloring Wild Animal pictures or by making some Wild Animal crafts to display on a shelf or dresser.  A personal favorite site of mine for kid’s crafts is DLTK-Kids.  They have coloring pages you can print off and they have fun toilet paper roll crafts that would be great to display and fairly easy for a child to make. 

Have fun as you create a wild space for your precious “little monkey(s)” to play and/or sleep in.  Don’t forget to put up a Wild Animal Growth Chart, because they don’t stay little for long! 

KidSpace: (kid’s space) an area specifically reserved for use by children or young people. 

KidSpace Solutions has been working for over 2 years to provide parents and all those with a child in their life who is near and dear to their heart with resources and products to create safe, stimulating and fun spaces for kids.   Now we are bringing the fun to you in blog form!  This is our space to share with you behind the scenes glimpses, specials, tips and information.  We look forward to moving forward with you and getting to know you better in this way.