Together or Separate? part 2

Thank goodness this next part doesn't start with "then we moved again."

As second grade has wound down, we have reexamined our desire to keep the girls in separate classrooms. What we've found is that our particular twins have not competed against one another. If they have the same assignments, they do not copy one another. They excel at many of the same things, though sometimes at a different pace, and they're okay with that. They often play together at recess, but many days they don't. And they started to ask if they could be in the same class again next year, like they were in kindergarten. Hmm...

Would it be nice if they had exactly the same homework assignments? If they were on exactly the same schedule at school? If I could help out with one teacher instead of two? If they had the same art teacher and the same music teacher, and we weren't keeping up with what was going on with so many different teachers? Well...yes...

But then another thought came to light.

Our Abigail was so tickled this year to have been elected as her class student council representative. (What that means in second grade is a little hard to figure, but she was excited.) I'm not at all assuming that either one will be chosen for that role next year, but if they're in the same class, it would put them in the position of competing against one another for something they may both really want...And worse, pitting them against each other in what is basically a popularity contest.

Their school holds a quarterly awards ceremony, in which each teacher names one student as a "distinguished student" for any number of worthy accomplishments. These awards are given for everything from "always being a good friend to everyone in the class" to "creativity in writing" to "being a super reader." The kids are extremely excited to receive these awards, and it's a lovely way for the teachers to recognize excellence in a wide variety of important areas. Each of our daughters has been awarded once this year, which is just lovely... Again, I do not presume that this will happen again, but if they were in the same class, would that preclude them from such an honor next year? I can imagine that it would be awkward for a teacher to nominate one twin and not the other, and it would certainly seem a bit unbalanced if two out of four quarterly awards were given to two sisters.

Would putting them together effectively limit their opportunities?

So we've mulled it over.

Would they enjoy being in the same class? Maybe. Would it make homework time easier? Maybe. Would they be sick of each other at the end of the day? Maybe. Would they end up competing with each other? Maybe.

In our minds, the possible pros are not outweighing the potential cons. Maybe everything would be fine. Maybe it wouldn't. They've been content enough in separate classes, and so we're going to stick with Plan A. I did chat with one of the administrators last week, requesting that they again be placed with collaborating teachers, and I was happy that that was an easy "yes" on his part.

Decision made. Whew.

Now...Can we believe that they're already going to be in third grade???