These are my most important things I use in my 100 baby challenges. I will explain each one below :)
https://i.imgur.com/TvtkHCm.png
Frigidaire refrigerated display.
Mom or teens can make food and put it into the display, when toddlers get hungry they will help themselves to food, you don't need to go and feed them or take food out of the fridge for them if you have this display fridge. Food lasts longer than leaving it on the counter as well ;) I also have my sim make Grand meals since they are bigger portion sizes per plate.
Sweet tooth ice cream machine
My sim makes diet ice cream and keeps it in the fridge for everyone, once they gain weight they eat it instead of having to spent time on a treadmill to lose weight. If you have a lot of grand meals you tend to put on a little weight LOL
School projects. There are some for kids and teens. Don't just do them on Mondays, do them everyday, if possible even more than one. Have your child/teen sim work carefully and as soon as the table is up have everyone in the household assist with the project. It goes much quicker and gives you the opportunity to do more than one. You will see as soon as they go to school your progress will just shoot up all of a sudden. The more you do, the more progress you will have.
Coolala the defender wall light. It is a must to keep those monsters at bay. I always place them low and close to the bed for the best affect. No monsters in my household.
Fantastical play tent
Toddlers gain imaginations skill super duper fast if they play in this tent, much faster than the other ways in game ;)
Private Journal
If you have the parenthood pack this is a must in every household. Your teens will have 8 hour long moodswings that are just the worst, have them write about it in the journal and they will disappear as quick as they came on. Sometimes you have to write in there one or two times more if its a really bad mood ;)
Purchase earbuds.
Children and teens should have these in their inventory. When you get the pop up saying that school will start in an hour, then go into their inventory and turn on their earbuds, they will gain fun even though you select for them to work hard at school so you can gain progress faster.
Other little tips.
With toddlers split up their skill gaining items all over the house so they can gain movement skill while working on others. Example have potties in the bathroom and the big teddies for communication in a room way across the other side, then the play tent even further away. I found the best way for thinking skill is to watch the household members while they help someone with a school project, just click on each household member and select the watch option.
With babies, if you have parenthood, then wait a little after the baby woke and use the super efficient baby care on the baby. If you don't have the pack then do the following. When the baby cries check for green smog if there is none then cuddle them, if they stop then all goods, if they keep crying then feed them. Soon after a feed there will be green smog, so change the dirty diaper and then cuddle just because they will need social sooner or later. Don't just run in and feed every time baby cries, you will be surprised how many times they just want a cuddle ;) Also its a good idea to keep the baby in mom's room and lock the door for everyone but her, its pretty hard to try to tend to a baby if children stand in front of the crib staring at the baby trying to help but not helping at all.
The most important thing is you have to have fun, if you are not having fun then I suggest you don't stick with it and perhaps either stop the challenge and just play the family as normal until you tire of them and want to play something different. I know it can get repetitive and boring, but its one massively nice feeling if you do accomplish it even if it takes forever. My last one took me 11 months to complete, my current one I am more than halfway in less than a month, purely because I am in a routine and know what to do now, oh and I have soooo much simming time.
Good luck in whatever you decide <3 Happy simming
