My daughter flew in a pod first at age 3. We made it very exciting - she now has HER OWN seat. I agree with the previous poster that kids don't seem to mind take-off and landing once you get the onboard entertainment going. Air Canada HAD a "skyriders" kid's program and still HAS related colouring etc. that I've seen them provide in flight (this was earlier in 2022 so I'm assuming the program is still going).

I also agree it is easiest to have a parent behind (so 2A & 3A etc or 3K & 4K etc.) For someone of average to above average height it is easy to lean over to keep an eye on them. You have four in your party so you could configure so that there is a parent behind and eye contact on each opposite kid. The seating would be: Kids: 2A & 2C; Adults; 3A & 3C. That means adult in 3A is positioned to help kid in 2A but kid in 2A has a pretty direct line-of-sight to adult in 3C.