Finley came up with a new word today – goodlicious. She was eating an M+M after a successful potty trip and said it was “goodlicious”. What a crack up.
This week was definitely good. Delicious, no. But definitely good! It was a busy few days of work for me and the weekend came quickly. The kids were pretty good at work this week. I didn't have a lot of office hours due to a ton of meetings, so that was helpful. My principal said this week (and I felt the same way) “I feel like I am on a treadmill and I am not getting any skinnier”. We are bombarded right now with 4th graders transition meetings to middle school, PPTs, IEPs, and CMTs. We have an alphabet soup of work right now. I have to report that my diabetic fared well during his standardized tests this week. Only 1 ½ weeks to go!
Arlington is doing well. She didn't have soccer this week but she and Mat went to a laser light show at her school on Friday night. She seemed to really enjoy that. I love that the school does fun things for the families. She has been working on reading newer and bigger words. Now that she has the phonics down, she can pick them up quicker. We pick a book, read through it, and then pick out all the words she doesn't know and practice them. Then we read the book again – success! It is fun.
Finley continues to do well with potty training. We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with her. Yay. She is still stubborn, but at least she has the idea. I took a little video of her being a crazy girl here at the house. I am going to try and upload it for this blog, but if not – the next one. She was running around being silly. She is a hoot. I was also able to get her hair in a few more pigtails! They aren't big, but better!
She also appeared the same day with these two shoes on:
And while I was very proud of her for putting on her shoes by herself, she doesn't pay much attention to detail.
Cainan is doing much better with potty training. He goes every time we sit him on the potty now, which is great. I am hoping in the next couple of weeks to get him in pullups all the time. Bye bye diapers. Yes!! Cainan has also figured out his shapes. Finally. We did a shape puzzle with him this week and he was able to do them all and knew what they were. That is good progress.
I have a few pictures below that my wonderful neighbor, Michelle, took of Arlington and “K” sled riding. They were really good, so I wanted to share them. She had so much fun that day. Sleding is one of her favorite activities.
Today we took the kids shopping to get a few things. Finley was hysterical while we were in the store. She was doing a crazy run with arms and legs flailing and having a great time. She loves to shop. Mostly because she loves to touch everything. While Cainan is content to ride in the cart and look around, Finley needs to be in the action.
We still have snow on the ground, but the weather is really nice this weekend, so I am hopeful it will all melt. I am ready to get outside and start to clear the yard and get ready for planting. Mat got trees for his birthday and they are longing to go outside and be in the sunshine. Come on spring!!
So I have been tossing around an idea in my head about separating Finley and Cainan next year for preschool. This is decision will be based largely on if Cainan gets into the special needs preschool or not. If he does, then Finley will stay at her preschool now since Cainan will only be there in the afternoons. The basis of my thought is that I think they NEED to be separated. Finley is ligh years ahead of Cainan in language and ability and she speaks for him – all the time. That is not helpful to the poor boy. Although, Cainan definitely doesn't mind. He is very happy to let Finley take the reins. Finley is bossy. She's female.
So, I am thinking that if Cainan doesn't get into the special needs preschool, I will take him to the preschool near my school. It is our district's preschool. There is a good chance he can receive speech there by our own speech teacher who works for my district. She still does private therapy! BUT – I don't want to take them both. I am not really sure why, but I do think it might do them some good to be separated. I could be wrong here.
So what are your thoughts? What would you do? My plan is to separate them in Kindergarten. Should leave them together until then? I want to hear from everyone. Especially you who ARE a twin (hint girls) and who have twins/forced twins. Would you have wanted to be separated? Did you care? Were you glad for your own space? They are boy/girl, which I know makes it a little different.
We have a set of triplets in our school – two girls, one boy. Each year mom puts two of them together, and one apart. Not sure why. Anyway, the one that is alone LOVES it. She loves being without a sibling in class. The other two are not so happy, but mostly indifferent.
This afternoon I went to a “green” party a friend of mine was having. It was like a Mary Kay party for green products. I did like their products, however, I am not a sucker for sales pitches. As much as I would love to support my friend on her new adventure, I cannot bring myself to spend that large amount of money on products I don't find very different than the green products I use now. The sales pitch folks got wind that I was a school nurse and they were all over me all evening. I guess they saw me as an “in” to making the schools green. Again- all for going green in the schools. Better products and more energy savings. Say YES!! However, no public school is going to pay these prices for products that may/may not be better for the environment. We are working on making our public schools green, but research needs to be done. We are starting with recycling. THEN I plan to rid our school of hand
Okay – time to go. Don't forget to turn your clocks ahead and lose an hour of beauty sleep. I will see you Tuesday!
5 comments:
The pictures are SO cute!
My vote is to separate "Florida" & "China." I think it would do them both a world of good to be independent and develop in ways that they individually need work on. But, I think as long as you have them in a good program that can meet each other their needs, they'll be fine. Finley will just find someone else to boss around :-)
When I taught Kindergarten last year, I had a girl in my class whose twin brother was in the other full-day K class. They were naturally good-natured little kids, but I think it really helped them to be apart and develop their own identities and strengths. The mom did this on purpose. She did it again this year (she has TWO SETS OF TWINS!) and I hear they are doing well.
On a similar note, in one of my student teaching classes this year, I have twin brothers in class. One is valedictorian and just super great at EVERYTHING. I feel like the other one is slightly held back by that, and may have felt better in a different English class. I could be wrong, but that's just my opinion.
Good luck with your decision!!
My suggestion is to separate the two. I'm sure they would do fine together, but being apart gives them an edge to developing their own personalities and allowing them to stick up for themselves and land on their own two feet. As a twin myself, I LOVED being in a different class then Carrie growing up. We, surprisingly, ended up with the same group of friends anyway, but I know that it helped me to develop my own sense of self and it helped to teach me that I was an individual and not part of a pair. So I would go with separating them. =) Hope that helps!!
I hope you've got good insurance on Finley, because she is definitely going to be your daredevil!=)
As a twin, I would have to say that either way you decide, the kids will be fine. As they grow older, they will develop into their own person, whether they are in the same classes or not. I never felt that my sister held me back and I don't think she felt the same, either. In fact, being together all of the time forced me to really figure out myself apart from her quicker. Mainly, because I hated being called one of the "twins" and wanted to be known as just Carrie.
I'm sure that Finley and Cainan would be fine to keep together or to separate. I will say that sometimes it was really nice to have Teen there with me; it was nice to know that I at least had one person on my side.
Here is what we are doing: Our girls will go through pre-school in the same class. They go to the same school that their older sister goes to. Since the girls are 8 months apart we are holding Lilah back. She has a very late summer birthday and her school encourages that. Now granted the time may come when we say we cannot do that to her, she is right on target and if that happens we will have them in separate classes. Right now they find comfort in knowing the other one is there in the class. They do play separate most of the time but if one is unhappy about something the "sister" always shows up to make things better. They also seems to gain confidence from each other being near. I am told they even hold hands during chapel and at other times during the day and one never lets the other be left out. Kinda sweet, but I think I really need to see it to believe it! :) I will be intrested to see what you end up doing. I am struggling with the what ifs on this one also.
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