2 in 1

At the end of May, the first graders had a 2-hour field trip/picnic to the CDC playground. I went during my 40-minute lunch break to eat with them and watch them play. Before I left, I asked Jonah and Micah individually who their best friend from their class was so I could take their picture together. Both of them said it was Erik! (Erik is in their same church class, too. He is more timid like Micah, but when he's comfortable, he talks a lot like Jonah, and he's very nice, so they both get along with him really well). So we found Erik, and I took a photo of all 3 of them together.

A lot of people ask me if I put the twins in the same school class, and here's my long answer to that question. When Jonah and Micah were 3, they started going to pre-school. They went to the same pre-school class, which was good for them because whenever one of them was feeling shy, the other would be the outgoing one. They relied on each other a lot during those 2 years of preschool, and they traded personalities during that time, too. Sometimes it was Micah who was shy, and sometimes it was Jonah who was the shy one. So I decided back then that I wanted to put them in different kindergarten classes so that they could establish their own personalities and make their own friends. But during the last 6 months of pre-school, when they were four and a half, they started doing just that. Instead of relying on each other, they started making their own friends and played in different circles of friends. So when the time for kindergarten sign-up came, I changed my mind and had them put in one class. It made it easier for me to volunteer and to have just one set of homework that was the same for both of them. And as long as the teacher put them in different learning groups, they did well. They had a great kindergarten year, and were still able to establish their own personalities and make their own friends even by being in the same class.
So I did it again in 1st grade, and put them in the same class together. I was their room mom, and I volunteered twice a week in their class (until February when I got hired at the school). I was so glad to have them in the same class together so that I didn't have to split my time between classrooms. The first two weeks of school, their teacher put them in the same desk grouping, which didn't work out very well, because they talked too much to each other and argued with each other a lot, too. After that, she learned and she kept them in different groups until the end of the year, and it worked out great for both of them. During 1st grade, they made a lot of the same friends, but they still have a few different friends from each other. Whenever I had recess duty towards the end of the schoolyear, I watched to see who/how they played. I saw them playing apart from each other most days but occasionally I saw them playing together, too. Having them in the same class has worked out really great so far for me and them, but it's the hardest on the teacher for the first month or so until she can tell the difference between their identical looks to see their different personalities!