How to make 5 year old feel special ?

[MiniMonty]

Hi all,
DS2 is third of three. Wife and I followed what I now see as a well established pattern: First one - made of glass, second one - more chilled out, third one will come home when its hungry.

Situation now is that DS1 and DD1 go off to Scouts or Judo or Brownies and DS2 gets dragged along for the delivery / pick up but at 5yrs has no clubs / activities of his own and he's feeling a bit left out. Also, he has a definite "hard done by" approach to the world and I kind of understand it but I'm not sure what to do to remedy it. He's feeling left behind and he's trying to go five times too fast to catch up and be noticed.

So I want him to feel as loved and nurtured and all that other fluffy stuff as the other two, I want a reason to regularly drag the other two off on a journey thats essentially about him - if you see what I mean. I need to find a (realistic) way of making him the centre of attention, centre of the activity, the reason we all do something.

Anyone had / have experience like this ?
Any bright ideas ?

Best wishes
Monty

I think at 5 there are not so many clubs as for older children - they get tired
could you take him out for a specail day out maybe - just him and you -
is there anything he is particuarly interested in that the others arn't - something again you could do together
is he on the waiting list for Beavers - that starts at 6 so would be at least something to look forward to
also do you share drop off and pick ups with other parents - that could cut down the number of trips he has to do
also I really like the book Playful Parenting which has lots of ideas about how to give children focused attention

Could he not join a club/attend an activity. Mine have at various times at the age of 5 or younger done:

Gym Tots
Rock Climbing
Swimming Lessons
Football Training
Tae Kwon Do
Dance

This isn't a club or anything but since i had my DS my Dniece has been feeling a bit left out i help bring her up and have always been like a mum to her now i have'my own baby' she gets all stroppy and you won't love me i'm not really your baby he is.

So once a month we 'sneak' out together to the cinema something we used to do a lot i tell her i want to go see xxx but i want it to be just us 2 so we'll just sneak off she loves it i think it makes her feel good i want to be with just her and no one else sometimes. Since you have other older DCs maybe the cinema wouldn't be fair but how about the park make a big deal about how u'll drop the others off first so it can be just you guys.

Horse-riding is also an option at that age.

Why not pick out two or three activity options for the weekend and get the youngest to pick which one everyone does?

Maybe it doesn't have to be an activity outside the home, e.g. you could have an evening where DS2 'makes' pizzas for everyone, he gets to decide what toppings to put on all the pizzas?
Or maybe take him out for coffee and a cake just the two of you?