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My Toys (I Put My Toys Away)
Words and Music © 2013 Kayte Deioma, BMI
AuntieKayte.com

Every day when I decide what I want to play
I know just where to find My Toys
'Cause I put them away.

Some go in the basket (box).
And some go on the shelf.
And I know just where to find each one
'Cause I put them there myself.

I know where each toy lives, and My Toys know I'm the boss.
And when I put them in their place, they almost never get lost.
Bum, bum, bum

Every day when I decide what I want to play
I know just where to find my toys
'Cause I put them away.

Tips for singing My Toys.

In most households with young children it can be a real challenge to keep toys from living EVERYWHERE, so I came up with this song to help brainwash the little ones into WANTING to put their toys away by empowering them to be the "boss" of their toys. That tends to be their favorite phrase of the song, along with "bum, bum, bum."

My Toys is designed to learn with your child and sing along as you pick up and put away toys together. It's even better to learn the song and sing it without the music so that you can modify the words to fit your home and your life.

The easiest word to change is the location where you put the toys. So instead of singing "some go in the basket," or in the second time through "box," you can change it to:
"Some go in the_____" and fill in with locations where things really go at your house, like cupboard, bin, closet, box, trunk, chest, drawer, tin, etc. If you demonstrate a few times, and then sing the first part of the phrase, kids have fun coming up with the right answer to fill in the blank. 

At the next level, you can be more specific about what goes where. Kids have fun helping to decide where things live. Once decided, you can reinforce the message by changing both the item and the location. So instead of singing "Some go in the basket, and some go on the shelf" you might sing "cars go in the bucket, and books go on the shelf" or "Balls go in the basket, and stuffed animals go on the shelf," or "Dominoes go in the tin, and the tin goes on the shelf." It does help if something goes on the shelf, so you can keep the rhyme with "myself," but you can change that too, if you're so inspired.

Parent mentor Lorraine Pursell recommends starting to sing My Toys with your child around age one, so that the "game" and the message are already ingrained by the time they are ready and able to make those decisions on their own.