Separating Twins in School? - Preschool Flashback

I know that there is a continual debate about whether or not to separate twins and other multiples in school. Here's true story that happened to us.

When our twins were in pre kindergarten class, the teacher assessed each of the children to evaluate and propose whether each child should progress to kindergarten. So, as the class was on task doing some project the teacher would pull one student aside and issue an oral assessment evaluation. When it was my daughter's turn the teacher began the evaluation and as she proceeded through the testing my daughter became stuck on a question about a letter, I cannot remember the exact question but that is irrelevant to the story anyway. Max, being the attentive twin brother that he is, noticed that his special sister was stuck and "whispered", in a voice loud enough to hear down the hall in the administrator's office, "The answer is 'Q'!" The teacher was surprised that help was so readily available and scolded Max telling him that she was assessing his sister and he was not to help her any more. To this scolding he replied in an indignant voice, "I can too help her, we're twins so we are the same!"

After that enlightening yet entertaining experience, the teacher recommended that we separate the children in Kindergarten. We did not take her advice but thought long and hard about it. We did however separate them after Kindergarten but for reasons other than assisting each other academically.

Gentlemen and Ladies

When you have twins everything has to be "fair" and "equal", as if that is even possible! I have to say that my children, like all children, have their moments but they are, for the most part, aiming to please, especially when it comes to me. This is what I mean, every morning Max opens my car door for me, waits for me to get in and let him know I am ready. Then he closes the door, waits for me to say "Thank you" and climbs into the car.

Well, since my daughter watched this go on for a long time she decided it was not "fair" for Max to get to do this every morning, so now her self-appointed job is to wait for me to set the alarm, open the door into the garage for me and then close it as fast as she can after I pass through. She is always "scared" that the alarm is going to go off if we do not get out in three seconds flat and, of course, closing the door quickly minimizes the time.

They will carry anything I leave on the floor to go out to the car without asking and put it in the front seat. And, if Max decides that he will open the garage door for me on one day then my daughter will automatically take on the car door duties. It must be a fairness system that they have worked out between them because after all twins are all about equality.

I have to say that even though sometimes parenting is difficult, it's gestures like these that make it all worthwhile.

Bah-ston

So, I am travelling to Boston for a few days then to NY for a few ours to visit my sister. My children are going crazy with emotion over me being gone. Although I do work outside the home, I rarely travel, so they are almost anxious over the prospect. Last night after a big weekend of company (translated, no sleep) they were both laying in my lap sobbing about how much they were going to miss me while I was gone. I explained to them that it was only going to be for four nights, then they would pick me up at the airport on the fifth night.

Then my daughter stops crying for a moment and says, "So are you going to take us to camp all week?" I replied that I would take them Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then she asked with a little grin on her face, "Then on Wednesday will you take us for doughnuts before you drop us off?" What can I say but, "Of course."

So, sensing my moment of weakness Max stops crying to and says, "Since you are going to Boston will you get me a cap that says Boston on it?" I made him no promises but said I would look, thinking that is a little more expensive than doughnuts. Then he says, "Oh, and a jacket too please!" Then my daughter says she wants a bear that says Boston on it, is there such a thing?

My lesson: it is much more expensive than I thought to travel without the children.

Wow, I never knew...

Check out wikipedia and it's information on twins and multiples. There is quite a lot of information here all laid out well and ready to read. I never knew it was there and if it was then I obviously missed it until now.

Capt'n Jack

So this morning when I woke the kiddos to get ready to go to day camp, we did our usual routine and congregated in Max's room so everyone could get sunscreen applied (remember, it's the Blue Lizard kind). Well, my daughter plops herself in front of me a little far away and I ask her to move closer. She says, "All righty Capt'n Jack." Then proceeds to move toward me.

She then turns to Max and says something that I did not understand. I said, "Excuse me?" to which she replied, "It's a secret language, only Max and I know it." Then he begins calling me Capt'n Jack, too. I'm thinking I don't think I look like Capt'n Jack, at least the last time I checked. So, this goes on for a while and as we are walking out the door, my daughter grabs my necklace, that looks like the one pictured here and says, if you put this over one eye you look like a pirate.

Mystery solved! But I still don't understand the "secret language."

Spongebob ReWritten

If you have children you probably know about Spongebob Squarepants, if you don't we'll...in my opinion you are not missing much, but our children and my husband enjoy the cartoon. Here's what he looks like


He's the yellow character and the others are his friends.


So, my six-year-old daughter wrote a Spongebob episode for her brother, Max, here's the story as written for her brother:

I like Spongebob. He has a funny brain.

Sandy has chubby cheeks. She is a squirrel.

Squidward is a squid and he likes to play the clarinet.

Patrick is a starfish and he is funny!

Mr. Krabs LOVES money.

I like Spongebob the best.

Spongebob lives in a pineapple. Patrick lives in a rock.

Sandy lives in a tree. Squidward lives in a funny house, it looks like a squid.

Mr. Krabs lives in an anchor-shaped house.

One day Spongebob had to take Sandy to the doctor’s because her tail wasn’t furry. Squidward had to go to because he fell off a cliff. That was funny! After Sandy was done seeing the doctor she went to go get a corndog because the doctor said it would help her tail grow back its hair. And it worked. She was happy and it was funny that a corndog would help a tail grow its fur back. Then when Sandy and Spongebob got back home Spongebob had to take Patrick to a birthday party which was Spongebob’s. Sandy was laughing so much she had to go to the birthday party. At Spongbob’s party they had a jumpy house. Sandy jumped off a cliff, accidentally and the whole jumpy house went with her. So the jumpy house and Sandy had to go to the doctor.

The next day Sandy, Squidward, Spongebob went to the bowling alley. Squidward had a turquoise ball. Spongebob had a yellow ball with green dots. Sandy had a pink ball. They all had nachos. Squidward said they were too cheesy and I mean way too cheesy! Spongedbob LOVED them and last but not least Sandy said they tasted like a squirrel. They each had three times with their ball. Guess what? Sandy won, of course. And Patrick was a bowling pin and he got ran over and said “ouch!” Guess who ran him over? Sandy did. So guess what? Sandy had to take Patrick to the doctor and he broke his leg!

Max could not wait for bedtime because she promised she would read him her story. What best friends they are! Well...usually.

Pokemon

So, the good thing about having twins is that they are both into the same things at the same time. The bad thing about having twins is that they are both into the same thing at the same time. Right now that thing seems to be Pokemon (which has been ruined for me since I read a funny definition a while ago, did you see it? In a contest, the winning definitions was Rastafarian proctologist).

Anyway, yesterday they were trading Pokemon cards, of course my son wants all the powerful ones and my daughter wants all the cute ones. That works our really well for them until one of the cute ones is also one of the powerful ones. Oh dear!

Sunscreen Causes Rashes, At Least At Our Home

So, my daughter had a rash last week which we, as the doting parents that we are, slathered in vitamin E gel and sent her on her way. Well...this week it came back again! So, my husband and I start picking our brains about what could be causing the rash. In the meantime, I receive an email containing information that most sunscreens contain ingredients that can cause reactions or even be harmful to children and I wondered if it could be the popular randed sunscreen we were using on the kids, after all, it says it's for Kids.

So, my daughter stayed home yesterday with my husband who took her to the doctor and my son, Max, went on to summer day camp. The doctor said that the rash was an allergic reaction to something and that it had to be something that was touching her skin, not something that she ate. He also said that it did not appear to be heat rash because heat rash generally forms in a V-shape down onto the chest and/or back (I learned something new). So, the doctor said it was probably sunscreen or chlorine from the pool, most likely sunscreen. He said we should start using Blue Lizard brand sunscreen because it is much more friendly than most other sunscreen brands.

After chatting with my husband last night we decided to dump the sunscreen that we were using and use the new sunscreen on both our children. So, this morning when they awoke, I told them they were both switching to the new sunscreen. Here, I thought Max would be thrilled to wear Lizard sunscreen but, no, he wanted to use his spray on kind, blah, blah, blah. Then, he said, "Mommy, I'm really itchy!" You guessed it, he too had the same rash.

Well, my daughter proceeds to explain that the sunscreen is "really cool" because it is white inside and turns blue when you stand in the sun (not sure if this is true or not but I just listened and nodded my head). And she proceeded to convince Max of all the coolness this new sunscreen brings with it (she really likes anything new, does not really matter what it is she has the innate knack to point out the things she *knows* are good about it). So, he acquiesced. And, here's the nut, I take them to day camp and explain the rash and the need for the special sunscreen and one of the counselors says, "Oh, now I can call the twins 'Itchy One' and 'Itchy Two'!" To which my daughter replies, "You can only call us that because we are twins." And, you thought those names only appeared in Dr. Seuss books.

So Close

I have to say that I do not believe there is any relationship stronger than a twin or multiple birth relationship. My six-year old twins, a boy and a girl, are so close I often say they are like an old married couple, except they are much closer than that. They really rely on each other for everything. Although my daughter has a much stronger personality and my son is so laid back (or wait...maybe that is just being a male?), they get along swimmingly. Yes, they have disagreements and they do things to try to get their father and I to take sides and love one better, but they get over it.

Anyway, last week my son, Max, went to a friend's house to play all day. My daughter was so "bored" all day long without her little built-in play mate. That evening she could not wait for my husband to arrive home because he was supposed to pick up Max on the way home. Well, when my husband retrieved our son, he chatted with the friend's parents for a bit before returning home. When, my husband walked in the door, my daughter let him have it with all her vocal cords. After letting it all out, she got over it and she and Max ran along to play together. The next morning when I went in to say good-bye before I left for work, my daughter was in Max's bed. So cute!

When I arrived home that evening I asked why she got into Max's bed the previous night, to which she replied, "I missed him."

There is nothing closer than a relationship among multiples.