seperating twins in school?

[blisstwins]

Are you seperating your twins in school? If so, when? I have boy girl twins and assumed I would seperate but I recently read an article strongly supporting keeping them together in early elementary. Our school has only one class per grade so we have been thinking of switching schools because of this and the other schools probably won't give me a choice. I just don't know what to do. I actually do think my children would be fine together for a few more years, but it is hard to imagine them being in the same classroom in 8th grade.

[caheinz]

There's an email mailing list called TWINS-L that just had a discussion about this. It'd be worth looking it up (Google TWINS-L and look back about 2 weeks ago) -- seemed like a lot of it depended on the kids themselves. (Some do great together, others do better separated.) Also seemed like there was variation from school to school in terms of policies and how easy/hard it was to get them changed.

[mamaoftwins]

We were just talking about this on my Moms of Twins Club website. It was about half and half keeping them together and splitting them. But, nearly everyone said it depends on your kids and most tried it together at first and went from there.

[sivan]

i think it depends on the kid.

check your state's law. some state's mandate that it's the PARENTS choice whether to place them together or separate them. I know it is here in NJ! :)

[tamie]

my boy girl twins just started Pre-K 3 in the same class. So far it seems to be working for them. I am open to either scenario.

My brother has boy girl twins also and they have been separated since kindergarten. It worked for them because the boy was pretty introverted and he had an opportunity to gain some independence.

[o_mom]

We have three sets of twins in the Pre-K class at school in two classrooms. Two of them (BB and BG) stayed together, the other set (BB) split up. I can see exactly why each set did what they did - the set of BB that are split are very spirited and feed off each other.

[thomma]

I agree that it depends on the kids.

I kept my b/g twins together for kindergarten this year. Their K teacher is a very good friend of mine and I'm going to see what she has to say about first grade...I trust her judgement. Apparently in the past parents have been strongly urged to separate their twins in our school but I met with the principal (also my boss, I teach second)last spring and informed her that I wanted them in the same room. She seemed surprised but didn't have a problem with it. Interestingly enough, ds and dd's classmates didn't realize that they were brother and sister until a month into school. We were at the bubbler one day after school and one of their classmates heard them both call me mommy...the little girl was shocked. None of their classmates realize/know that they're twins. I think I made the right choice for my kids and their teacher agrees.

Kim
ds&dd 5/03

[emmiem]

I am a twin and I did better when placed in a class without my twin brother.
Michele

[fivi2]

I plan to start my id girls in the same class at least for kinder. We will evaluate each year after that. I can see positives either way, but I think transitioning into school will be hard enough without adding the stress of separating them for the first time. (for us).

i talked to a mom today who is herself an id twin and she said she and her sis stayed together until 3rd grade. At that point her mom said they needed a break from each other! She said it worked out well for them.

But - I agree that it all depends on the kids!