- A real key was using the non-toxic colored sprinkle-dust before it is was her scheduled time to vacuum. We found this finally at our local high-end baby store and after we found it we were like "duh!" and really felt we should have known, because we have a good friend who has even driven the Zamboni and when you think about it, the Zamboni guy gets a lot of help from the fact that the ice is already roughed up everywhere so he gets a really good marker for where he's already been. Well, we think soon our daughter will be completely off the dust and now we only sprinkle the dust in corners and common places that she forgets. Before we found the dust, there really was no rhyme or reason to her vacuuming and since she doesn't talk or listen very well, it was just frustrating for everyone trying to explain spots she'd missed or gone over way too many times. Actually the dust is really a lot of fun and at first I would just sprinkle a lot of the dust all over and then do all the vacuuming myself. I am actually surprised that more adults do not use it. OK, so probably the dust is the #1 tip I can give you: do not try to teach your infant to vacuum without using the dust! If Parent's magazine comes out with a "52 tips to teach your toddler good vacuuming skills" article, for sure this should be the #1 tip. (Or #52 tip, I am not sure how they order the tips, my wife does all the reading. It could be that they put the most important one with the highest number.)
- The carrot was way more effective than the stick, so to speak. Our daughter seemed to respond and learn much more quickly to praise for good vacuuming rather than punishment for bad vacuuming. I think as a parent you should probably save punishment for things where they can really get hurt, like sticking paperclips into the electrical outlet and for more minor things like vacuuming errors, probably positive reinforcement is the way to go. Definitely it seemed to be the case with our daughter and I suspect would be true for most others as well. Our technique was to always right away praise our daughter with phrases like "good job!" or "very good job!" or "excellent job!" immediately after she switched off the vacuum cleaner and signed "all done" "all done" "all done". After this and a group hug with all three of us, then we would bring her around the room and explain how there were still some sprinkle dust left in certain areas. So we combined love with phrases like "unacceptable" and "work harder next time." But you can imagine how hard this was before we got the sprinkle dust.
- Definitely go with a canister vacuum. Upright vacuums are just not at all designed for small toddlers or any sized toddler, I would think. I don't know why we didn't try the canister vacuum first. Well, actually yes, I guess the reason is just that we've always had an upright vacuum and have never been a "canister family" and it didn't occur to us at first there would be better options. You may be reluctant to invest in a new vacuum before even trying, but trust me, it is really not worth it: the leverage and everything is just all wrong. With the canister, our daughter still cannot push it or pull it while at the same time vacuuming, but it is a relatively simple task for her to set down the hose, push to a new area and then continue vacuuming. We allow her to leave it running while she does this, but if you are in a region with very high electricity costs, you may want to develop your own policies for on/off cycling. I am not going to get into endorsing one brand or model over another (though I do endorse a type; I endorse: canister). You can check Consumer Reports for the most reliable models and your "best buy" for your money and if they have safety ratings for infant and toddler usage you will want to pay attention to that as well and for sure any special warnings they have put out about infant or toddler vacuum safety. Actually I recommend paying attention to any safety warnings as it is likely that a safety problem for an adult will have an infant or toddler parallel. If it's a safety warning on an upright model, you can trust Consumer Reports, of course, but you should ignore it, because you should be buying a canister model as I have recommended above.
OK, Those are all the tips I can think of! I hope it is helpful to at least some!
PS: Also I should mention that I am not blind to the fact that many parents will be opposed to the idea of using the sprinkle-dust as a sort of crutch at the beginning, I just didn't feel like including it, because as far as I am concerned there shouldn't be a debate. With our daughter it definitely didn't slow her development to get help from the dust, and I think it sped development a huge amount, and like I said, we could probably stop using it now. But yes, I do know this will be a hot button with some parents (and I would guess with nearly all of the parents at our daughter's private school). However, those parents really take it too far with a lot of issues, so far that I don't even really approve, but I have never said anything because at both of the weekly PTA meetings (the policies meeting and also the fundraising meeting) I am usually just too tired to get in another fight. To be honest, at either one of the meetings, I usually am just really eager for them to end. So I don't want to get into the debate, it is your own personal choice if you want the frustrating half-assed vacuuming phase to drag on until maybe 15, 16, 19 months until he or she can vacuum. You can also pay some older person to do it or do it yourself (with or without dust) and wait until your infant can communicate properly to start learning, I really don't care.
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