A Silly but Effective way to get Toddlers to Clean

I use songs the most when the girls are cleaning.

Convincing a two and three year old to clean is difficult enough. Keeping the momentum going to clean a whole room is almost impossible! Songs are a way that we all have fun while cleaning.

Our favorite is sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star:

Clean up, clean up, little girls
With your bouncing hair and curls
Putting all your toys away
To mess them up another day

Clean up, clean up, little girls
Bouncing hair and curls and twirls

This always gets the kids smiling and they like to put extra “bounce” into the bouncing hair and curls line. Occasionally they decide to pretend they are hopping bunnies and I have to corral them back to finish the playroom. It’s worth it, though, because bunnytime is adorable. Plus, I don’t mind if they take breaks now and then as long as they come back and finish what they started.

They’re fantastic and I love singing with them.

One song they haven’t learned yet is “Beans, beans, the musical fruit…:” I guess that’s a good thing because I found out from the Bush’s website today that beans aren’t a fruit, but a vegetable. Personally, I was under the impression they were Legumes and that those were different from veggies. Shows what I know!

If you want to participate, Bush’s is going to send a lucky winner to NYC to sing their song in Times Square! Visit the Bean Chant site to participate in the Magical Veggie Challenge and you could be meeting Drew Lachey!

If i were to rewrite the “Beans, beans, the musical fruit…” song so it was correct it would go a little something like this:

Beans, beans, are not a fruit
This vegatable has protein to boot
The more you eat, the better you feel
So eat your beans at every meal!

See, you could totally do better than that!

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as an entry for a contest sponsored by Bush’s Beans.