Juggling Children

October 4, 2017 Karen 25 comments

This is a request from Julie Tallin, thanks Julie, for tips on how to divide your time and attention between several children.

In my experience, trying to juggle several children at once is easy, if managed correctly.

I used to try to include everyone together, so nobody feels left out.

I can recall my youngest son always wanting to be treated as a ‘big boy’ ( due to the fact that he had 3 older brothers).

One day he picked up a book, that one of his brothers has been reading and pretended he was reading it, fully engrossed. The only problem was, he was holding the book upside down, much to everyone’s amusement!

One another occasion, after a session of speech therapy.The therapist said to me “I would like Adam to practise these words at home.” He became very excited by this and said “Have I got homework, like my brothers?”

So from then on,when my older children were sat around the table doing home work I would encourage Adam to sit there too and give him a note book and crayons and instruct him to draw a dog etc.

For children who are too young to join in, in this way, why not sit them in a high chair, close by, with a healthy snack or small toy to keep them entertained?.

My older boys used to have weekly spelling tests at school, which they would learn at home. One day on the school run in the car, I was testing them on words. Adam looked up and said “What about me?So I replied “Adam. spell dog.” He came back with, “DOG.” It was a fluke that surprised us all!

Whilst child minding I really had to juggle children , as most days I had 3 under 5 and more in the school holidays.

Again I tried to plan activities that everyone could enjoy. Even a baby will sit happily on your lap while you read a story or sing. At around 18 months they can play with dough or draw using chunky crayons if sat in a high chair near by.I used to encourage the older children to help with the little ones. I had one particular 8 year old girl who loved to help. When we were preparing to go out they would get their shoes and sit on my stairs, in a queue, waiting for her to put them on. This worked really well for us.Older children also like to push a buggy or a child in a swing,or will happily cuddle a younger child under supervision, of course.

While any child requiring a nap was asleep I would read the other children a story, or encourage other quiet activities.

One time the children were junk modelling and a young child happily stuck masking tape onto a box and then pulled it off again. He still took this home (after I explained it to his mum).

 

If you let all the children share your time, in this way, hopefully, it will avoid jealousy, when one child appears to be getting more attention. GOOD LUCK.

As always questions/ comments are welcome. I will answer questions as soon as I can.

Karen x

25 Comments on “Juggling Children

  1. Fab post, I have been a mother to one for years and am expecting a second and want to ensure my eldest feels involved and not excluded, I do worry about ‘managing’ both and this has given me some good ideas #ablogginggoodtime

  2. Juggling children is one thing, juggling children with a part time job….that’s another thing altogether! Also quite tricky when one child is at school and the others aren’t. School kids have very different needs. #thatfridaylinky

    1. That is true, but a fantastic opportunity to spend time with a little one when the older children are in school, as for a part time job, that’s one of the reasons why I registered as a child minder, so that I could earn some money whilst looking after my own children

  3. One of my biggest joys as a mu is watching them play with their siblings, I am lucky mine get along great and play really well together. Some great tips! Thanks for joining in #ablogginggoodtime

  4. My adopted boys really compete in everything and that includes ‘mummy time’ so I often struggle to give them both individual quality time. One thing that worked well was the smaller always joined in in doing older’s homework so now the small on eis way ahead of his class in spelling and reading 🙂 #FamilyFunLinky

  5. Really good advice here as a Mum of 3 I so agree with the statement of making sure to try to include everyone together, so that nobody feels left out. I have 3 fab helpers and do make sure that our eldest gets some one to one time when the twins are napping. #thesatsesh

  6. wonderful thank you – i only have to juggle two and it’s still challenging some days!
    all the best
    #BloggerClubUK

  7. Great tips. My son used to love helping me out look after his baby sister, and now she a bit older and wants to be a ‘big girl’ she also likes to sit next to her brother and do her ‘homework’. As my youngest gets a lot of one on one time with me while her brother is in school we make a special time of it after she has gone to bed when we snuggle up together on the couch and either watch a program we both like or read to each other. Also, every few months I will ask one of the grandparents to look after the youngest for a day (which she loves as she gets them all to herself) and I will take my son out for the day just the two of us.
    Thank you for joining #FamilyFunLinky x

  8. Such a fab idea! Get everyone to all do the same task so they’re all mucking in! I’m sure I can work into it some Practical learning ie “washing up” or cleaning their rooms hahahaaha!
    Thank you for sharing this with us at #TriumphantTales. I hope to see you back tomorrow.

  9. My youngest used to love cleaning the kitchen sink, I swear that I had the shiney sink in town, he still gets a buzz from cleaning now at almost 25, so you may be able to achieve this dream!, thanks for sharing x

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