What transitions do you use?

I realized on Wednesday that my toddlers are not used to transitions and they like to change activities on their own terms. I tried the "one more time then we leave" transition but would like some other options. We use the 5 minute transition for the oldest but I don't think that is appropriate because the toddlers have no concept of time. So what transitions do you use?

 

I started using time when they were two. "Three minutes. . .Two minutes. . .One more minute and then we _____" Even if I don't keep time, it gives them a countdown timer of sorts.

 

I give them a one minute warning and then I count down from 5.

 

^^Leighann makes better sense.

 

We live by the church bells (we have three in walking distance) - "when the church bell rings the next time, it is time to ..." . For us, this works well because the bells just ring, nothing mom can do about it, nothing a kid can do about it. I will give them warning though "the church bells will ring soon, time for one more ..."

We also have special songs for transitions or activities that go with transitions, e.g. a tidy up-song, a putting shoes on-song. This seems to help a lot because they love singing and acting out songs and this will make them laugh about the transition song instead of whining about leaving the old activity. Most of these I just made up and vary as the situation demands.

 

We do 3,2,1 all done. Say bye-bye swing or whatever. This far it works.

 

We do the five more minutes version. Even though they have no concept of real time, they know that "soon" another activity will happen. Transition warnings are so important!

 

If the transition is leaving somewhere, I usually say that we're leaving soon, then I'll give a one minute warning. If the transition is at home usually just a one minute warning.

My girls had a hard time transitioning to new activities at home (ie- cleaning up one thing so that we could then have dinner or whatever) so I started putting on a song on my iPad and when the song was over, it was cleanup time. That led to "crazy cleanup" where we'd put on a fast song and run around the room cleaning up as much as we could. That fun part helped with the transition.

You really can't go wrong with five minute or one minute warnings... AS LONG AS YOU FOLLOW THROUGH!! A girlfriend of mine constantly gives five minute warnings, then one minute warnings, then stands around at the park for another 1/2 hour. Consequently, her son is the worst at transitioning - he's totally learned that his mom's warnings mean nothing.

 

I do the same thing. Before our timer broke, I would set it and say we are done with whatever activity when the timer goes off.
I agree with Tricia, be consistent with your transition method, if you are doing 5 more minutes, then go in 5 more minutes. Don't linger or give extra time.

 

Ditto and ditto. I use a five minute countdown from around 2 years. I know they don't understand time properly that young, but they do understand counting down and that it means it's almost time to move on.

You could get a sand hourglass timer for when you're at home. The benefit of those is that they can see the sand running out, kind of a physical manifestation of the time counting down.

I'd also second (or third) the idea of using songs for things like tidying up. More fun=less chance of them pitching a fit.

 

I also started doing 5 minutes around that age. Then I would do one minute as a reminder. The trick is to never, ever give in to demands for more time. If you have to, carry them out, but do it gently -- not like you are angry, but just like it's an inevitable fact of the universe that It Is Time To Go Now. (Not to say that I always pull this off -- but that's the ideal.)

Around that age it was also helpful to say goodbye to things. Bye-bye swing, bye-bye sandbox, bye-bye books, etc.