One year my teaching partner and I each had a twin in our class and we felt they would’ve been better in the same room. We talked to the parents about our thinking and they agreed to place them together the next year. Parenting twins is no doubt hard and frustrating, and parents of multiples often do not think that they will survive. Parenting multiples is obviously physically difficult—feeding two, handling diapers, bathing two. But emotionally, twins share a bond that can sometimes result in double the challenge; twins have intertwined identities and fluid ego boundaries, which makes parenting them a demanding undertaking. Birthdays and holidays can be complicated enough, but then you have to decide – is it better to have one toy that they both share, two of the same, or similar but different toys? With certain items, it may only be feasible to buy one of something, and in many cases this actually works out well.

Make Wax Paper Lanterns

Ask them if they like to sit together or be in the same group. Find out what excites them about being in the same class as their brother or sister and what concerns them. But, here’s the catch…you need to do this privately one on one. If you have this kind of conversation with them together chances are one of them will differ to the other. Below are 11 tips for teaching twins at the elementary level. Amy Hetherington-Coy is a middle school science teacher in Connecticut.

• I once even failed to realize that a pair offraternal twins were related.
• The combination of being both proactive andreactive will help lay the groundwork for multiples to enjoy the comfortablelearning environment they deserve.
• While some communities face extreme heat, others brace for storms and rising waters, and many face multiple impacts.
• There are even some prepared slides and accompanying notes on some important school and learning concerns.

Teachingtwin Options

As a former elementary school teacher, I’ve seen how valuable it is to point out great examples of sharing and offer praise when someone is kind. The other day one of my girls ran out of her favorite color in her paint box, and her sister let her share. I commented on what a great job she did sharing, and soon they were both sharing colors whenever they ran out. On the other hand, sometimes the opposite happens, things are grabbed and feelings get hurt. This usually results in a toy being put away for a while until they show me they can share again and be kind to each other. When my identical twin daughters started preschool, I became hyper-aware of how the teachers were treating my daughters — whether as individuals or a pair.

As the children share, talk about how wonderful the differences are and how even with differences, we share a lot of things in common. Right now we are in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak, so these are also great activities to do with your kids at home. This activity would also work well for Family Home Evening, Primary, home school, preschool, or kindergarten. I love these 36 different activities, all with crayons, that go way, way beyond plain old coloring. This is one technique that can be used to make coloring pictures more interesting. Make little symbols inside each coloring space in the picture. Use a legend on the side to allot one color for every symbol.

I’ve had my more responsible students assist those who needed support in being prepared for lessons or packing up at the end of the day. If this is the case in your room, just pick a student that is not the child’s twin to offer that support. Simply put, this is theadvice I would give to any parent, colleague, or administrator about teachingmy own children. Some states have a Twins Law that states parents have the ultimate say in deciding if twins should be separated in school or if their twins should be in the same class. Truly it comes down to what is the best choice for the individual set of itselementarymydear.com twins and the family. If you have valid reasons to think they should be separated for the next school year, share them with the parents. Do so with facts and observational data and not emotional opinion.