anyone with 3 (almost 4) aged 5 and under?

[littleraysofsunshine]

??

I should imagine there are lots of people with at least 3 aged 5 and under (or who used to have, even though they may now have grown).
what do you want to know ?

Not me, but my mum had 4 of us under 5. I also know two people with 3 under 2!
Are you going to be in this situation?

We have a just 5yo, 3.5, nearly two yo and I'm almost six months pregnant.

I was wondering how people find the best balance with catering to each set of needs as where they are small and close they're also differing in age abilities.

So when reading/playing/crafting etc.

Or when things get tough and trying to not tell off using shouting and using a gentle calm method (which we try).

They have such strong personalities, head strong, determined and love to have one to one time which can be tricky when I parent along mostly as dp works full time as late a lot.

Yes, I did. They are a bit older now at 9, 7, 5 and 3; but dd1 was 5.2 when dd4 was born.

My situation was complicated a lot by dd2 having ASD, which presented with a lot of problems from around 3, so when I fell pregnant with dd4.

One to one time was basically non-existent. But we are much better at it now than we were. I'll bend over backwards to squeeze some 1to1 time at my own expense! We have the same gender and started them early at activities like gymnastics and swimming. It was always much easier to have structured activities than free playing (not sure if this was because ASD dd as so bad at not having structure). They all watched ceebeebies until about w year ago, when the oldest 2 moved to cbbc.

They also tend to like the same art/craft. Really like hamabeads, cooking, colouring in and drawing. These generally shared interests makes it a lot easier for me.

It is a lot of hard work, but when it works it is so lovely to see how well they get alongside!