Coping with 4 kids under 6 - How I survive the busy part of the day

In my last post in the 'Coping with 4 kids under 6' series, I wrote about a typical day in our house which you can find here.

In today's post, I will be sharing some things I do in order to survive the busy part of the day with the kids on my own. That is, dinner, bath and bed.

At this point in time, we have no extracurricular activities to attend, so our afternoons are pretty much the same.

Homework
Originally homework was done on a Monday (Hubby's day off), but they have increased the amount of homework and have worked it in a way so it has to be done on set days. For eg. Thursdays homework is to write a structured overview of their new guided reading book, but they don't get the new book til Thursdays, so it can't be done any earlier. So now we do what we can on a Monday and just do little bits throughout the week. This is still a working progress as the extra homework was only recently introduced.

Dinner

• I usually start dinner prep from 4:30 (depending what's on the menu, sometimes later) to have it on the table no later than 6.
• I plan our dinners based on our days - busy day, easy meal. Hubby home, harder meal.
• I sometimes bulk cook and freeze things like spaghetti bol and chili con carne.
• Wednesday's are usually leftovers night, toast or something easy. This is the night Missy stays at Nanny's, and Hubby's work puts on a big feed, so I only need to cook for the boys and I.

Baths

• The kids usually bath together
• Sometimes I top and tail the lot of them.
• I used to bath bubs every other night, but will be every night now that he's crawling around.
• Sometimes I fill the kitchen sink and bath them in there one by one. I actually find this easier as I don't have 3 wet little bodies doing the noody run at once. They love it and have so much fun. It's also better for my back.
• And some days if we're too tired they go to bed as is.

Bed

• The 2 older boys share a room and are in bed by 7:30. 
• Missy's bedtime is 8:30 
• Bubs bedtime is usually between 8 and 8:30. 
• They all get story time and cuddles before they go to bed.

Chores

• They all help. Missy loves to set the table (decorations and all), Mr4 loves being in charge of the shoe rack and homeless shoes, Mr 2.5 'helps' unload the dishwasher and loves to take the clothes to the laundry.
• They are responsible for their belongings and have to pack away their things before dinner, bath, bed or moving onto another activity.

What are your mummy tips? I'd love to hear them :)

Linking up with the lovely Jess at  Diary of a SAHM for IBOT :)