Middle child syndrome 5 yr old help!

Well, I have 6 kids 8 and under and while I don’t really have middle child issues, I do have a 4 year old, a 3 year old and a 1(almost 2) year old,  that want a certain amount of attention!  I have found that if I go from breakfast, straight into the school day without any one on one time with the littles, they tend to become more of a distraction and act more needy!  I heard a wise fellow homeschooling mama of a large family share that she found that when she took a little time out with the little ones early on in the morning, she found they were much more content to entertain themselves happily afterwards!  She actually referred to it as “filling their cup”.  She said if you fill the cup of your little ones earlier in the day, you will find your morning usually goes a little smoother!  I can’t guarantee there aren’t days where this won’t work, but most days, it really does, at least at our home!  Just sitting with them and reading a book or two, working a puzzled, singing and sitting still, giving them my undivided attention as best I can really does “fill their cup” so to speak and they tend to not act out for attention!  I realize this can be a challenge and I don’t know if you think this would help your kiddo, but I thought I would share as it has helped me tremendously!  My little ones now know that most of the time, they can expect time with mommy before school!  My oldest kiddos have short morning jobs they do before school starts so I try to use that time with the little ones!   I would also encourage you to initiate this when he is pleasant!  When I first started this, I would always ask them to come sit with me and read or do something fun before any whining or negative behavior began!  I didn’t want them to think they had to act out to get this time with mommy!  Pretty much like habit training!  I realize some kids are more difficult and I don’t know if any of this even helps!  Maybe some of the other moms can relate and can give you more specifics!  I am accessible throughout the day, but as I’m sure you know, one on one time is hard when you are in the middle of schooling other kids.  My kids also know that mom will take time with them during snack time or right before or after lunch we will all sit down and read, listen to music, dance, do a puppet show 🙂  One other thing, my 3 & 4 year old had a hard time with me being busy with school at the beginning of the school year so in addition to spending a short time with them in the morning, I would also make a point to praise them when they were playing happily and entertaining themselves and waiting patiently on mommy!  This really motivated them to hang in there because mommy would be available soon!  They have really blossomed in this area!  At the beginning of the year, I was thinking….how on earth am I going to get anything done!  I think it comes down to knowing the needs of your child, habit training and having some things they enjoy that are semi-quiet to play with during school time!  I can honestly say that my house is rarely quiet though!  Is it that he needs something interesting to do or that he wants one on one time with you?  I know moms who keep an activity bin and they change things out every day so their child has new and interesting things to do while they do school!  They would do this for each child and right before school began, they would give each child their bin with 3 or 4 things to do!  Just brainstorming…. what do you think is the main issue he is having?