littlearrowsmama

3 Helpful Tips to Survive 3 Kids 4 and Under

Nothing can really prepare you to take care of three tiny humans 4 years old and younger, but my goal with this post is to at least try! Honestly, that time of my life is a bit like a blur, but I’ve sorted and organized my memories and here are 3 helpful tips to survive 3 kids 4 and under.

3 tips for 3 kids 4 and under — Our 3 meeting for the first time. 4, 2, and 3 days.

1. LET THINGS GO

This season of your life is not the time to try to be Martha Stewart. It’s not the time to have a Pinterest perfect house. It’s not the time to try to implement some new schedule in your family. It’s not the time to start something new. It’s not the time to do anything much beyond keeping everyone alive for that first little while.

AND THAT’S OK!

If you’re living out of a laundry hamper instead of drawers/closets, that’s ok.

If you have to use paper plates and plastic cups and utensils so that you’re sink isn’t constantly overflowing, that’s ok.

If your kids are eating their weight in goldfish and peanut butter crackers, that’s ok.

If you constantly smell slightly (or not so slightly) of soured milk, that’s ok.

If your older kids watch all 3,983 episodes of Bluey in one day, that’s ok.

If your older kids want to be around Dad/Grandpa/Grandma a little more than you and baby sometimes, that’s ok.

If you can’t get back to all of the texts/phone calls/messages of congratulations, that’s ok.

If you have to pay extra to have groceries delivered even though it’s eating into your goldfish and peanut butter cracker budget, it’s ok.

If the weight isn’t falling off like you hoped it would or it did the first two times, that’s ok.

Do you get the gist?

Whatever is happening those first few months is just fine. It’s all ok. It’s a season and it won’t be forever. Sure, there will come a day when you’ve got to change habits that are build during this time, but wait to do that until you’ve got your feet back under you.

Until then, don’t reject help. Don’t reject meals being brought to your house, even if it’s baked spaghetti for the 58th time. Don’t apologize for the way your house looks. Don’t make excuses for what your big kids are eating or doing. Don’t speak negatively about your body.

Just let it all go and you’ll have much more peace!

2. INVOLVE YOUR BIG KIDS

Your life isn’t the only one impacted by this new baby. The previous baby of the family has no become a big sibling and *gasp* a middle child. Your oldest has yet another kid to share mama and daddy with. Their worlds are turned upside down almost as much as yours is. While you’re giving yourself extra grace (hello tip #1!), don’t forget to give your kids heaps of it, too.

One of the best ways I found to get our big kids connecting with the baby was to get them involved. My new “middle” was freshly 2 when our baby was born and the biggest brother was right around 4.5. Sure, they’re not going to be able to deep clean the house for you, but they can help.

They can help fetch diapers/wipes.

They can help get you a glass of water.

They can sit and play with the baby on the floor while you get something to eat.

They can pick out something for the baby to wear.

They can take dirty diapers to the trash can.

They can help brush the baby’s hair after bathtime.

They can put clothes in their hamper at bedtime.

They can “read” their favorite book to the baby.

They can gently pat the baby’s back while you hold them to help with burping.

They can cover the baby up with a blanket in their swing or rocker.

There are SO many other ways big brothers/sisters can be involved. Now, sometimes having them help is inconvenient or slower than you doing it yourself, but sibling bonds start forming day one and I’ve seen the rewards of the efforts I put in those first few months, even years later.

3. BE A LAZY GENIUS

If you’ve not heard of The Lazy Genius, you’ve missed out! Her entire theory can be summed up as “Be a genius about what matters to you and lazy about what doesn’t.”

So let’s think about it. What really matters to you are your house? An empty sink? Clean kitchen counters? Laundry totally done? Floors cleared? Clutter put away? Everything dusted? Home cooked meals every night?

Whatever it is, name it and figure out a way to make it happen in this season. And listen, I don’t think this goes against Tip #1. I think that there are some things you really care about that you can get creative and take care of in this season.

If you really care about having an empty sink at night, maybe you use disposable kitchenware whenever possible. When that’s not possible, have your oldest help you put stuff in the dishwasher. Will it look like it does when you do it? Nope. But will your kids be involved and your sink be empty? Yep. Win.

If your laundry being totally done really matters, recruit a friend. When people say “Let me know if you need anything,” they’re opening themselves up to actually helping you. Call a friend and see if they’re willing to spend an afternoon at your house, helping with laundry. Turn on a kid movie, break out a cup of coffee or a mimosa, and enjoy some girl talk while the machines are running. Grown up interaction and your laundry being done? Win.

If your floors being cleared every day is important to you, it sounds like a great time to make a new family routine! Turn on some fun music and tell your kids to dance while they put away all of the stuff on the floor. Or maybe challenge them to get it all done in a certain time. Or tell them you’ll time them and if they get it done within ___ minutes, they can get a treat. If they’re trying hard, turn the timer off and give them a treat anyways! Kids learning responsibility and clear floors before bed? Win.

Whatever matters to you, make it happen in a way that doesn’t involve YOU doing it. You’re healing from birth. You’re running on too little sleep (if I had a 4th tip, it would be to take care of yourself and get as much sleep as possible, just sayin’!). You’re feeding a baby, be it by boob or bottle. You’re keeping a tiny human alive.

Other people can take care of your house.

So there you’ve got it, my three biggest tips for surviving the first few months being a parent of 3 kids 4 years old and younger. In all honesty, those days are a blur to me. Writing this came from looking at a lot of pictures from those days and it sparking memories.

But you know what?

YOU’RE GONNA GET THROUGH IT.

Let it go.

Involve your kids.

Become a Lazy Genius.

YOU CAN DO THIS

Let me know in the comments—which tip clicks the most for you? What are you excited about implementing in your house?

And don’t forget to connect with me on instagram and facebook! I love learning more about you and creating a community of people making real mom life simpler!

Disney Family Movie Nights

The best thing that came out of 2020? Our tradition of Disney Family Movie Night! It has been an absolute blast and I wanted to share about what it is, how we plan it, and how we afford it.

What is a Disney Family Movie Night?

Starting in April 2020, when we realized we were going to be homebound much longer than we’d thought, we knew we needed to do something to break up the monotony. My husband and I love Disney and had been taking full advantage of Disney+ for a while. We were talking about how our kids hadn’t seen some of the classics and there were a few even we had missed. It was like a lightbulb went off and we decided to start what we call our Disney Family Movie Nights. (Just about) every Friday night, we stay home, eat a themed dinner, and watch a Disney movie. We chose to start at the beginning with Snow White and as of the time of my writing this, we’re about to watch Treasure Planet.

The level of extravagance is up to you. You can have activities and decorations to go along if you have the time. We started that way and as life opened back up, my capacity to do those things diminished so we scaled back to only a themed dinner and the kids still look forward to it every single week, even well over a year later.

The order you go is up to you! Maybe you have no order. Maybe you watch in reverse theatrical release. Maybe you go deeper than just theatrical release and watch the entire Disney canon. The options are basically endless.

Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, and Hunchback of Notre Dame

How do you plan it?

Repeat after me. Pinterest is your friend. Don’t reinvent the entire wheel if you don’t have to, especially if you’ve never seen the movie and have no point of reference. Search for “__________ family movie night” and you’ll see a ton of ideas! If none of those results pique your interest, try “____________ party food” or “____________ dinner.” Then look at all the ideas and decide which direction you want to go. You can try to make food that you see in the movie (like grey stuff cupcakes), be inspired by the part of the world the movie is set in (hawaiian food for Lilo and Stitch), or take character names and make fun alterations (like Baloo’s Berries). We typically do a main dish, a side or two, and a dessert. The dessert is almost always themed, fun, and a treat since we don’t always have one during the week.

Dinosaur, Emperors New Groove, and Lilo & Stitch

How do you afford it?

I’m including this section because the cost is something that made me put it off for a few weeks. After looking on Pinterest, I was sure that we were going to have to add to our grocery budget to fit in all of the things I was seeing. Turns out, that’s not the case at all!

You can make this fit in whatever your budget it. Of course you can go all out and make an extravagant meal every week, but you can also find smart ways to fit it in. Here are a few ways I work it into our budget:

Use what we’ve already got– I’ll look in our fridge/freezer/pantry and figure out what we’ve already got that I can get creative with.
Use things you’ll use another way- If a recipe calls for a little bit of a really expensive ingredient you’ll never use, maybe it’s best to find another recipe, find an alternative ingredient, or omit it altogether. Use things your family normally eats and put them together in fun, themed ways.
If you’re making something big (like a big batch of dessert), think of somewhere else you can use them– For Lilo & Stitch I made a batch of 24 pineapple upside down cupcakes… we needed 5. But it was July 4th weekend and we had two different cookouts planned, so I knew I could take the other 19 to those two parties. It counted as my entire contribution to one of them and I took whatever was leftover along with something else to the second. Doing that saved money of having to buy stuff to make/take to the parties.

I hope something about this post has sparked something inside you that will start this in your family. It’s so important to have one night a week dedicated to just your immediate family. No friends, no extended family, just you and your kids. Have we been perfect? NO WAY! We’ve had several movie Saturday mornings and skipped weeks altogether. But the majority of our Fridays the 15 months have consisted of us sitting and watching a movie together with zero phones or distractions and they’re the sweetest memories. Worth every second of planning and every penny spent.

Let me know in the comments— What’s your favorite Disney movie that you’d love to have a movie night to watch?

Our Homeschool Curriculum Picks for 1st and 3rd Grade

It’s almost that time of year!

The time of year where you pull out all your fresh pencils, paper, and craft supplies. The time of year where you sit and plan lessons out weeks in advance. The time of year where you plan out your library book lists, put holds on them, and come home with a curated collection that goes along with what you’re studying that week. The time of year that makes homeschooling feel magical.

If you’re anything like me… that all changes about 6 weeks in. All of our supplies are in disarray, the lesson plans have been thrown out the window, and we come home from the library with 20 books chosen at random that nobody actually enjoys reading but I still have to keep up with to attempt to return on time.

But those 6 weeks… they’re wonderful and the reason we keep coming back to homeschooling.

CAN I GET AN AMEN?!

So before the magic goes away, I wanted to share with you our curriculum choices in case you’re still on the hunt for something that works for your family.

LANGUAGE ARTS

We have used The Good and the Beautiful curriculum since day 1 for our Language Arts and Math curriculum and it’s not changing this year.

I absolutely love TGATB language arts curriculum because it makes teaching my kids to read not intimidating. We decided to homeschool our oldest literally 2 weeks before he was about to start kindergarten so I was in a rush to find something affordable and all-in-one. This stuff is all of that. It’s very wholesome and focuses on classic values with more vintage-y pictures. There’s a good bit of art appreciation and some geography thrown int he mix, too.

One of the coolest things about TGATB is they actually give away Levels 1-5 of their Language Arts curriculum for FREE. No strings attached. You can download it all in a PDF and print it out yourself. It’s an amazing resource if money is tight. Obviously you miss the readers and some of the other extras, but the bulk of what they’re learning is in the Course Book.

MATH

Math is still TGATB for us this year, but it’s going to look a little different, at least for my 3rd grader. TGATB is totally revamping their math curriculum to make it even more affordable and easier to teach! When they were clearing out their previous curriculum, I went ahead and bought level 1 & 2 to use with our middle daughter for a whopping $30 total. I couldn’t pass up that great of a deal, so she’ll be using the older curriculum for at least this year while my 3rd grader is a guinea pig for the new stuff. You can find out more about it from the creator herself right here.

HISTORY

My opinions on Kindergarten are a different post for a different day, but ours didn’t include history. Then in first grade, we tried TGATB history and it just didn’t jive with us. I did some research and figured we’d give The Story of the World a whirl for second grade because it was a pretty low-pressure year and SOTW is low-commitment financially. Well… we LOVED it. It’s like reading a storybook to the kids and we’re able to supplement with our own activities and library books to go with what we’re learning about. There is an optional activity book available, but I didn’t buy it for volume 2 because we never used it. I can see the value in it for older children, but my own supplements have been more than enough to help the lessons stick. You can’t beat a history curriculum for under $20!

SCIENCE

This is definitely the biggest financial investment we made this year and I can’t even tell you that we love it because we haven’t done it yet, but I’m looking forward to it! The lessons seem very much open-and-go and they provide everything you need to do the lessons. Again, we didn’t mess with science curriculum in Kindergarten and then had two misses in first and second grade because there were really involved experiments that required too many expensive/hard to find items so we just never did them. Science without experiments is way less fun, let me tell you! I’ll do a mid-year update with a YAY or NAY vote on the science.

And that’s that! We have some spelling curriculum we’re trying, but I honestly think that we’re just going to be doing a lot of creative writing to practice spelling naturally because both of my kids have really great imagination. I’m very confident in everything but science, and fairly confident in that, so I’m hopeful it’ll be a nice, smooth year.

If you homeschool, what curriculum are you using this year? I’m always interested in learning about new ones! Let me know in the comments!

As always, let’s connect! I’m on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, ready to get to know other people so we can make real mom life simpler!