I adopted the idea from MOTH of having older siblings take turns watching their younger preschool siblings while I work with school age kids.  This has been a life saver for me.

We have four children seven and under with another on the way. One way that I have stream lined my errand day is that I placed the children in the van with an older child and younger child together on each bench. So, when we load in the car each older child has a "little" that they buckle and then they buckle themselves. Usually by the time I load the diaper bag and my purse and start the car everyone is buckled and all I have to do is a quick check to make sure all straps are positioned right. It has helped a TON!!

haha... I had my first three in less than 30 months.  My fourth will arrive a few weeks after my oldest turns four.  We don't have an "older kid" to help.  My three year old and two year olds help as much as they are able but I can't really ask them to help another child with most things.

Our sanity tips:
1) Don't leave the house too often.  I stockpile groceries and we have playdates at our house.  Life is just simpler when I don't have to corral kids - if we go somewhere it is usually in walking distance :)
2) Have mats for quiet time - kids have timer time or quiet play time on a mat.  They get to bring a toy and play quietly.  We start the mat as soon as the kids are crawling.  I have used this as a "breather" time when they are in a pattern of harassing each other.  Our house is too small to send them away for re-grouping, so we all pull out the mats.  Its actually a lot of fun and they usually swap toys and start sharing communicating nicely after the break.
3) Make consequences immediate for inappropriate behavior... If I don't and make threats or ignore some behaviors I find that the day can quickly snowball.  If I nip issues in the bud they never have a chance to escalate.
4) Meal plan and have snacks handy - Whenever I do OAMC my life runs so much more smoothly.  It is so nice to not have to rush during the post-nap cranky time.
5) have fun!  If my attitude is poor - or if the kids are fighting more than normal I have found that if I adjust my attitude the day seems to improve as well.


So, any tips from other moms like me, who don't have older kids to help?  I know I have much to learn!

My experience was similar to Quirky Momma's in that we had 5 children by the time our oldest was 5 years old, so there were no older children to help when we first had lots of littles.

One of my best tips for managing the house full of only preschoolers is learning to make a schedule work for me.  I recently posted our schedule from when we had 4 children 3 years and younger.

Here are some tips for going out when you only have little ones.

Of course now things are very different.  I have each "older" (usually around 6 is considered "older") child assigned to a younger child to help with shoes and socks, strap into and out of the car and hold hands in the parking lot and/or store.

Tina - that is one MOTH suggestion that I've not implemented, having older children watch younger children while I work with some on school work.

How does that work for you?  I find that when I'm working with my older children on school work that I'm either working with ALL of our older children or the ones that I'm not working with have other things to do.  (Music practice, independent schoolwork, cooking, etc.) 
 
Don't get me wrong, the big ones do help with the younger ones (take them outside to play, let them help in the kitchen or with other projects, read to them, etc.) , it is just never during school time.  Just wondering how that works in your home and how much time the older children spend watching the younger ones.

Thanks, Kimberly! I'm eager to read your schedule from when you had 4 under 3! We do the same thing as QuirkyMomma. We rarely go out- we're very blessed to have a huge yard to play in as well as 2 wonderful parks less than a quarter mile away. We only go out when we have help, which usually means Daddy is home. I've recently put all the toys up and just get out one thing at a time for them to use- they seem to do better playing and there's not such a mess to pick up.