We have 4 kids. I don’t quite consider that a large family, but I know many people do. We have friends with 9 kids, 6 kids, 5 kids, etc so really we are a small family compared to them. Nevertheless, we have found some tricks from our friends that help keep us organized.
For our children, we have decided to assign each of our kids a color. Our oldest is orange, 2nd is blue, 3rd is pink, and 4th is purple. This works great for us.
For mealtimes, we have bought 2 of the Munchkin Feeding Sets. They come with a bowl, cup, and plate in our children’s colors plus the color green. Green we use for friends that come over or in case we ever have another. With each kid having their color for plates, it has helped a ton so each kid gets what they need. For example, my 2 year old needs her meat cut smaller and of course eats smaller portions than my almost 10 year old, and my 6 year old has allergies. No accidental mixups!
With each kid having a color, we make sure that everything they need is that color such as their toothbrush. Otherwise I’m sure we would forget which toothbrush belongs to which kid. It makes keeping 4 toothbrushes separate much easier. The girls hairbrushes are also in their colors. This works especially when hairbrushes are left around the house – I know which child did it 🙂
From a very young age, they are taught what their color is and our 2 year old has a firm grasp on her purple color. Every once in a while, Dad will forget and mix the 2 little girls colors up, and our 2 year old is usually the one that corrects him.
What are your tips for keeping up with multiple kids and keeping their personal items separate?
Tracy says
That’s what I did when I had twin boys to separate their belongings. My daughter gets purple or pink. The boys get blue or green that match their eye colors of blue and green. It is this way with sippy cups, toothbrushes, shoes. One of my boys has green shoes, but I did not like the blue version. So my other son got red shoes. It still works because one still has his regular color. We are not having any more kids, so we don’t have to worry about other colors.