Separate classes/ separate schedules

My kids will be going to half-day preschool in the fall. The school has told us that their policy is to separate twins into different classes. This was great because that's what my husband and I wanted. Well, I just found out that the school is consolidating their 4 preschool classes for the coming fall. So there will only be 2 classes this year: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I don't know what the school is going to do about their twin policy now that they only offer one morning and one afternoon class. But I'm wondering if it would be totally crazy to have one child in the morning class and one in the afternoon. Has anyone gone through a similar situation?


On the one hand, I think parents of different age siblings deal with different school schedules all the time, but on the other hand, I feel like it's going to drive me bonkers to go back and forth to school 4 times everyday. (Though the school is very close to us.) I know that the kids will benefit greatly by being in separate classes, but I'm not sure I can take it.

 

Since it's just preschool and only half-day, I think I would try to keep them together just for convenience. I separated my boys in kindergarten and am really glad I did, but I didn't in preschool. I wouldn't have wanted to drive back and forth that much, nor would I have wanted my day broken up like that. It would be hard to go anywhere/accomplish anything when you're always watching the clock to be sure you get back in time to pick somebody up/drop them off.

On the other hand, one nice benefit would be having one-on-one time with each child.

 

On the positive side, having your kids in separate classes at separate times will give you 1:1 time with the one at home. If this appeals, then maybe you should keep the separate classes.

I personally would put them in the same class. At this age, separation is not that important - my opinion, of course. But you will be spending much of your day shuttling, and it won't be as easy to complete other errands.

My girls were together in preschool. They separated on their own and developed their own friends. If I could do it over, I would still keep them together.

 

I, too, would probably wait another year to separate. The one on one time would be pretty nice but to be so constrained in everything I did, everyday, would drive me nuts. If decide it would be better for you to have them together and the school says that this is not their norm ask if "their norm" is just a standard or a written policy, our schools have a standard to separate (which I probably will with full day Kindergarten) but they will accomodate a request to keep them together, they just don't volunteer that info.

Good luck on your decision, whatever it will be.

 

I would be selfish and keep them together if possible. I use preschool time to get my hair cut, holiday shop, etc. Things I don't want to do with extra eyes around. Mine were together this year and did great. Granted I have b/g twins - don't know if that makes a difference.

 

We had M&T in the same class for pre-school for two year together. They were in the same class, but didn't really interact with each other once they were there. Our school only offered one AM and one PM session as well. For me, I was not sure about separating them, but having them together for pre-school gave me courage to know they would be ok separated in Kindergarten (which we did)
Now next year they will be going to completely different school (as of now) Madison got into the charter school we had applyed to, and Tabitha is still on the wait list. We are facing that logistical delemia now.
I am sure we would not have done pre-school at all of the school had of insisted on separating them because the running back and forth to the school 4 times a day is a major Pain. And the added risk of "where is so and so going and why can't I go!??" everyday would have gotten to me. The one on one time with the child not in school sounds good though.

 

We thought we would have this problem when the twins started Kinder. At the time of registration, many of the schools around here were still on the "Track" system...basically there are so many kids here in UT that there are 4 year-round tracks and only 3 tracks are in school at any given time. Well, since there was only 1 Kinder teacher per track, we were either going to have to have different tracks (which would mean different vaca schedules), AM and PM (which would have me going back and forth to the school 4x/day, or same classes. Luckily our school went to "Traditional" (non-year-round/non-track) the year they started Kinder so they were both in AM and separate classes.

I would tell the preschool director that it would negatively impact your family to be one AM and one PM...think of all the gas you will be using going back and forth so many times/day!! Even though the school is "close by" (ours is only 3 blocks from the house) it's still using gas back and forth so many times! And for Preschool, they are still at an age where they can be together and start making new friends but may still need eachother around too.

ITA here!! For Preschool it is not necessary or worth it to separate them!! Mine were together for Preschool then I started separating them for Kinder. I knew they would need to be in different classes once they got into Elem School, but in Preschool they did fine.