'Time to tidy up' are words that can strike dread into the heart of even the most positive and experienced of early years practitioners. Every day and, for some of us, twice a day, that time arrives - and it arrives when everyone is tired and grumpy.
Most practitioners will recognise the following scenario: staff race around washing paint pots, tidying table-top activities, trying to find all the jigsaw pieces, sweeping up the sand, tracking down lumps of dough and returning home corner items scattered throughout the setting.
Meanwhile the children continue playing, hide, lie under tables pretending to pick up pencils, 'busy' themselves transporting pieces of Lego across the setting or read a book and ignore the mayhem. And there is usually someone lying on the carpet waving their feet in the air saying 'I can't do it, my legs won't work - look.'
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