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Tidying My Room

A way that actually works

Play this lessonNarrated out loud. No account, works offline.

Also available in Spanish. The app stops after two lessons a day and suggests something to do away from the screen.

What it teaches

These are the lines the lesson comes back to, and the ones a child actually remembers afterwards.

'Tidy your room' is not one job. It's about forty.

Most mess is just things with nowhere to live.

How it starts

Story time. This is about a girl called Priya, and a bedroom floor that had not been seen by human eyes in some time.

How the lesson goes

The only order that works

  1. Rubbish first — bin bag, one pass
  2. Then anything that lives in another room
  3. Then sort what's left into groups

Sorting what's left

  1. Everything of one kind, into one pile
  2. Then each pile goes home together
  3. Anything with no home — make one

Keeping it, which is the easier half

  1. Ten minutes, same time every day
  2. One trip out — take something with you
  3. Put it away, not down

The question at the end

You've been asked to tidy your room. What do you do first?

For the grown-up

Every lesson ends by handing the child something to do off the screen, and telling you what was taught so you can use the same words.

Try this today: Get a bag and do one pass of your room for rubbish only. Nothing else. Then decide if you want to keep going.

Then: Tell a grown-up about one thing in your room that needs a home, and ask for a box.

More in Story Time

The whole library is free

Twenty-four narrated lessons for ages 4 to 9, in English and Spanish. No account, no sign-up, no ads, and nothing your child does in the app ever leaves the device — you can check that yourself with the network tab open. Open the lessons.