Parting is such sweet sorrow

The twins are not in the same class at school. People always ask if they are. The common perception is that they should be because they will feel lost otherwise. I used to think that too. After all, they did spend most of their waking time together, even if it was fighting with one another. So, when they went to play school and pre-nursery, I asked that they were put together.

In the current kindergarten they are at, they are in separate classes. It is policy there. I was nervous about it at first and the twins were a bit lost as well. But they seem better for it. We have discovered that Jordan was used to depending on Evan. She would wait a split second before answering or she would just follow whatever he did. And in that way, being on her own has forced her to focus her attention on the teacher and to learn to follow instructions independently of her brother who is many classrooms away.

When I was in primary school, I had a set of twins in my class. I used to think it would be cool if they took turns to come to school. After all, they were identical twins and I could only tell them apart on PE days when they wore different house t-shirts. I thought of all the ways I could get away with half the amount of work and half the amount of time in school if I had a doppelganger of sorts.

But that was me as a kid. This morning, as a mother and an educator, I was reminded why I should never send the twins to the same school, let alone they be in the same class.

I had asked Jordan to write some numbers while I took a shower. Evan was off doing goodness knows what. When I got out of the shower, Evan comes up to me to show me Jordan's book. When questioned about what he was doing with his sister's book, his response was "Jordan did half, I did half! Good right?" True it was cooperative effort, but not in an area where it should be.
























We can tell very clearly whose half was whose. But two halves here don't amount to a whole. And then, my GP's (who has teenaged twins) ominous warnings about twins and the shenanigans they get up to, resound loudly in my mind and I know I am in for a lot of trouble in the not too distant future.

Incidentally, the squiggles and attempted star are Jordan's way of rewarding herself for numbers well written.


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