Did you expect the kittens to listen carefully to your instructions, know what on earth you were talking about and obediently do as they were told? How do you think they might have learnt to do that?
I assume you have never had a baby of your own to look after. If you had, you would know that a baby of ANY kind doesn't listen! Didn't your grandma tell you that?
These are not stuffed soft toys that you can play with when you feel like it, then put them back in the toybox and find them hours later still lying exactly where you put them.
They are living creatures, still very young and needing lots of cuddles and stroking to make up for being taken away from their mother. You are their mother now, and you will have to gently teach them all the things they need to know to live with you. You don't teach them just with words, and it doesn't happen overnight. Find out how to do it and then have the patience to keep at it .
Where did they come from? If it was just someone whose female cat had not been neutered and was allowed to produce kittens randomly without her owner knowing how to look after them, then they may not have had a very good start to their little lives.
You are responsible for them now. Time to learn how to do it properly, and be the best owner ever to the poor wee things. If you can't do that, take them NOW to a cat rescue home and let someone else adopt them and do it.