Want to flush your toilet training frustrations away?
Here’s a list of activities to make your children enjoy potty time.
Of course, all little ones are wired differently so what’s fun for Tiny Tim may not be for little Ms. Muffet. But we’re sure there’s something for everybody.
Here are ways to make potty training fun:
1. Creative stories. Tell your child the potty is hungry and has an appetite for pee and poop. Regina of Crazy Nuts Mom instructs us on how to do this:
You have to pretend you are the potty talking saying (in a deep voice) I’m hungry, I need to eat your pee pees and poo poo.
And when you flush you gotta say, in the same deep voice, yum yum thank you.
2. Rip it up! Keep a stash of used paper wherever the potty is and tear away. This encourages fun potty visits.
3. Target practice. Clearly more for boys, place cereal inside the potty so your kiddo has something to aim for while relieving his bladder.
4. Magic water. Put blue or red coloring in the toilet so when your child pees on it, it turns green or orange, respectively.
5. Pull a friend. Whether it’s teddy, a doll or a truck, having a toy accompany your kiddo just makes potty time better.
6. Poop gazing. If you can stomach staring at poop, ask your child what shapes they look like. You may even designate a mom, dad and baby poop.
It’s gross but hey, it might work for some. Besides, children are naturally curious and we’re sure they’ve looked at their own poop at some point.
7. Song and dance number. Make your own potty song and dance to rejoice whenever the toilet trainee has done a good job.
8. Books / DVDs. There are a number of books and DVDs about potty training which can help your child become better acquainted with the potty. Make use of them.
9. “A” bag of picks. Put inexpensive toys in a small pouch and have your child pick one item after a successful potty visit.
10. Other rewards. Rewards have always been great incentives so here are a few things you can do:
- Sweets. If you don’t give your child a lot of this, it can work wonders. Use sparingly.
- Stickers. The oldest trick in the book but one that often works. What kid doesn’t love filling a chart with stickers after each successful potty visit? (Yours? Oh okay, then continue reading below.)
- Stamps. Notice how pre-schools use this technique? It must work well then!
- Special event. A certain number of potty visits can be turned into a treat. What it is, the kiddos will have to find out – after they visit the potty a few times that is.
- Custom reward. Find something your child is into and use that as encouragement to form the potty habit. A clever mom shared on Baby Center that she made her daughter use washable nail polish every time her potty trainee peed, then made a new deal: if the kiddo pooped, she can get the more permanent nail polish. It worked like a charm.
11. Bonus: Be supportive. Potty training can be frustrating enough so don’t add to it by reprimanding your kiddo for accidents or not wanting to go pee or poop. Besides…
“You can get more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
Got any cute toilet training tips of your own? Share it with us so other moms reading this can use it to make potty time a fun time.
Feel free to share this to the rest of the world!
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Wonderful suggestions, I am there right now, with my almost 2 year old she is doing great though, just a few stumps in the road.
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Glad you liked them and hope these help you with your stumps on the road. Thanks for dropping by Pamela, always nice to see you here.
haha This was cute! I don’t know what would work on my son, as I am not really active in training him at this time. He is interested though, as his conversation proves it.
I had to laugh at “Poop gazing”. Cause it’s true, they do like looking.. My son after he dpoops, in his diaper, will say “Oh, I see, I see” meaning “let me see let me see”. I’m grossing out, but do realize it’s all new and he it trying understand this part of life. haha
I can’t wait till he’s potty trained, I’ll have to try the “bring a friend” he loves his trucks.
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I read somewhere that we shouldn’t show them we’re grossed out with either pee or poop when potty training since they should view it as something normal.
So the poop gazing makes sense – though it may be gross – in terms of showing them it’s normal. But yeah, my son sometimes likes seeing his poop and even comments on how it looks. (Haha oh no, I’m going to gross out folks)
Good luck with the whole potty training endeavor. Thanks for always leaving a comment, Sarah. I appreciate the time you take.
Great ideas! This will be very useful in a few months for us!
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Hey Leigh. Oh I can’t wait to read about your potty training adventures with your boys!
Potty training my son was a bit difficult at first, but things progressed smoothly after I bought a brand new potty trainer which he personally chose at the mall.
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Thank you for that awesome tip! Involving them in the potty training process – especially buying stuff – should make the training easier. Happy Easter to you!
Great ideas! My sister is trying to potty train her little girl right now. I’ll definitely be sharing this with her. Thanks!
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Thank you so much for sharing this, Kim! I really appreciate it
Hope she finds it useful. Have a happy Easter!
Oh my gosh these made me laugh! I especially like the potty being hungry and using your deep voice…whatever it takes;)
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It’s true, Courtney, whatever it takes! You should try potty training once because it forces you to get really creative – oh wait, that goes for anything related to motherhood!
Funny tips! Luckily, I didn’t have to use tons of tricks just so our little would go to potty but one thing has worked really well till now… bringing picture books or magazines or children clothes catalogs. She love them all. I sat in front of her using her stand stool and I read to her
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You’re lucky then, SP because potty training is really a struggle for some parents. Bringing a magazine or catalog in with LSP is a great tip, and you may have a fashionista in the making haha.
Cute ideas.bookmarking this for later for sure!!
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Thanks for bookmarking it Courtney. And if ever you decide to write about your kiddos potty training journey, I’ll spam you with comments. haha. Hope you two have it easy, we don’t want Mommy to be stressed out about the infamous Mr. Potty!
I am in the process of training my 5th child and one thing I’ve learned is a child will not train until they are ready, no matter how you bribe, I mean reward them.
And this child is definately proving my point!
One thing I have used, especially to introduce pottying, is Potty Time by the makers of Signing Time. It is an awesome DVD with lots of songs that teach kids how amazing their body is. The body can run, jump, eat, play, go potty, etc. And that we need to listen to our body: when we are hungry, we stop what we’re doing and eat. When we feel the need to potty, we stop what we are doing and go potty. My kids, especially my 7yo daughter, really like the DVD. Even though I am a bit partial since I’m a Signing Time instructor and sell the Potty Time products, I really believe Potty Time is fun for helping little ones learn about their body and going potty.
Ohh I’ve never heard of the DVD but it sounds very interesting. Thank you for letting me know about this. Do you have a link that can lead me to it?
Also completely agree with waiting for the child to be ready for potty training instead of forcing him/her. Thanks for your comment, Heidi, and hope to see you more around here.
If you go to my website, http://www.little-ones-signing.com, you’ll see the little frog, Hopkins and Potty Time. Just click it and it will take you to the Potty Time products.
Now that I know about this site, you may see me more.
I was able to find the products, thank you. Looking forward to your visits then.
Thanks so much for these tips! I’m glad to see poop gazing here as one of the ways to make potty training fun. We’ve been doing this little exercise and some may find it gross, but I think it’s funny to hear my son saying “one daddy poopoo, one mommy poopoo, and a cuteeee baby poopoo”.
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