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 :)

Coping with 4 kids under 6 - A typical day

A few weeks ago, I did a post on things we do that help to cope with 4 kids under 6 which you can find here.

I promised to post about a typical day in our house, and here it is:

7.30: Everyone up and out of bed

• Breaky
• Dressed
• Teeth
• Hair, etc
• The older 2 make their beds and tidy their rooms

Hubby works afternoon shift so he helps with the morning rush. 1 parent usually gets Missy ready for school while the other gets the boys ready.

8:45: Hubby walks Missy to school (this is their one on one time)

• Put a load of washing on
• Boys outside for play if a nice day
• Feed pets
• General tidy
• Hang load/start another if needed, but usally stick to 1 a day

10:30: Snack time

• Free play
• Feed bubs

11:00: Bubs nap (depends how he slept the night before cause he's teething, but normally this is his nap time)

12:00: Lunch

• Mr 2's nap
• Spend time with Mr almost 4
• Quick tidy
• Rest

2:00: Start getting ready to pick Missy up from school.

3:20: Back home, chill with kids.

• Homework is done on a Monday.
• Reading every day

4:00: Washing off and folded, put away if the kids are behaving.

• Kids play

4:30: Dinner prep

• Kids usually play outside, or I put a movie on. Missy helps mummy

5:30-6:00: Dinner.

• Bubs eats what we eat and often has a quick nap after dinner (again depending)
• Spend time with kids

6:45: Baths

7:00: Mr 2's story and bed time

• Missy and Mr almost 4 help mummy tidy up and load dishwasher (i usually unload it while making dinner)

7:30: Quiet time

• Watch TV
• Read
• Start getting bubs ready for bed

8:00: Bubs bed time

• Kids continue quiet time

8:30: Big kids stories and bed time

• I tidy up
• Prepare Missy's lunch for following day
• Lay out clothes
• Pack anything needed for the following day, such as Library bag for Library day etc
• Catch up on my favourite show
• Catch u on facebook, blogs etc

10:30: shower

• Start dishwasher as it's cheaper rates

11:00: Bed - I've been naughty recently and haven't been going to bed til almost midnight, this has to change lol.


That's pretty much how a typical day goes around here :).

Today wasn't a typical day, as Hubby is doing another double shift, so Missy stayed at my sisters lastnight and my brother called and said that he'll pick Missy up from school as he is coming to our house to use the gym.

Coping with 4 kids under 6 - "How do you do it?"

"How do you do it??"

Is something I'm asked on a regular basis.

''I can't handle this 1 (or 2)  and I often think of you with your 4, How do you do it??"

I do it because I have to. It's what I'm used to. It can be very hard at times, but there are things we do (and don't do) in order for us to cope a little easier..

My husband works the afternoon shift.
My husband is home during the day, so basically, I'm only on my own for 5 or 6 hours before the kids go to bed. This time is spent with kids naps, play, dinner/bath/bed routine, and unless we're having a particularly bad day, this time goes pretty fast. Granted that is the busiest part of the day, but more on that later :)

We're a team.
We help each other. We both do the housework and we both see to the kids. There are things either hubby or myself do the bulk of, for eg. I do the cooking, he mowes the lawns and does the yard work. Having said that, if hubby hasn't had time to mowe the lawn, I'll do it (I draw the line at the whipper snippering though lol), and if I can't be bothered cooking, he'll do it. We both know what needs to be done and do it (routines - see below)

We don't stick to a schedule.

Schedules don't work in our family. Not with an overactive toddler and a baby who doesn't know what sleep is. Maybe when the kids are older one may work, but at the moment, it's more of a headache trying to stick to a schedule.

Routines.

This is a must! We've had our fair share of failed attempts and disruptions, with the birth of our 4th bub, illness, 1st born off to school and life in general. But without a routine life would be much harder to deal with, especially when we're hit with major disruptions.

The older two know the routine. For eg. They know they have to play quietly in their room if they wake up too early, and to tidy their room and make their beds before breaky. They also pull out their bowls, spoons, cereal and milk (or spreads if they want toast) and set it up ready for us to make - this was their doing, we got up one morning to find it all out ready to be made, and they've done it ever since :) 

I'll do a post on our typical day and what I do to cope with the busy time before bed at a later stage.

Communicating with each other.

Another very important one. We tell each other everything. We need to stay one step ahead at all times, especially where Mr 2 is concerned, and in order to do so, we have to communicate. If we have an issue whether it be with each other or something totally unrelated, we'll say so. We give credit where credits due and we know what we both want out of life.

Friendship.

I'm throwing this one in, as we are best friends first and foremost and we share a great bond. Without it I really don't think we'd cope at all.

There are other things we do, but I think the above are the most important and without them I'd hate to think how our lives would be. We have our fair share of bad days, recently, more than our fair share, but we get through, we have to :)