how to teach the teacher to tell them apart(and everyone else)

Discussion in 'The Toddler Years(1-3)' started by Bebolini, Mar 31, 2008.

  1. Bebolini

    Bebolini Member

    Hi everyone,

    i haven\t been around for such a long time due to busy-twin-toddlers-household and i really miss all that.
    It is always great to read the topics and to feel you are not alone in the universe.

    I have now a new question for you.

    My boys( 18 months) are starting the kindergarten in May.After a long time fighting with myself and my DH "We" decided that the kids "need" to go to a daycare and i "need" to "quit being a SAHM".
    Not to mention what a deep influence on that my MIL has, but ........................

    So now i have a huge new problem to deal with.The kindergarten staff want the kids to be in the same group.

    !!!!!! Here i have to say i had troubled my head with pros and cons about that and still haven't found the BEST solution.If any ideas-please share i will be very thankful !!!!

    So the teachers asked me how to tell them apart. :blink: They somehow can not see the difference in my boys.I dont know what to do.I had some ideas,but all ended up being a silly things such a wearing the same color t-shirt and then being labeled" the red boy" or something like that.

    I really don't know what to do.My DH says is not a big deal.TO him maybe, to me it is.What if they need to give an allergy drops to only one of them or so...

    Please if you have any ideas, help. :rolleyes:

    Thank you all.
     
  2. Mommyto3preciousboys

    Mommyto3preciousboys Well-Known Member

    Hi, My twin boys are Drew and Tristan. They go to preschool 2 days a week. I always, even when not in school, dress Drew in Blue. If there is a shirt with any blue in it Drew has it on. It helps friends and of course school. Once the school gets to know your children they WILL be able to tell them apart. You can, b/c you are around them often and their mom;) Once they spend some time with them and learn their personalities you will no longer have to differentiate them. Another option is a name tag for a couple of months. I do the shirt color so that the kids can learn too. Hope this helps!
     
  3. DebbiesTwins

    DebbiesTwins Well-Known Member

    Hello there. My girls' preschool writes each child's name on a strip of masking tape (the kind painters use to protect the edges of doors & ceilings) and then sticks the tape on each child's back for the first few days or weeks when the child is new to the school. The tape doesn't bother the kids or stain the clothes. The teachers do this for all the kids, not just twins; it helps them learn the children's names faster.

    After a week or so the teachers will be able to tell your children apart.
     
  4. guestd

    guestd Well-Known Member

    I do the shirt color as well. Luke usually wears something blue and/or Lee wears something green. It has worked for us.
     
  5. mandyanna

    mandyanna Well-Known Member

    I always do green for Grace. She wears something green then everybody (caregivers) know the green for Grace
     
  6. snoopytwins

    snoopytwins Well-Known Member

    Mine aren't identical but everyone has a hard time. Daycare was an issue in the beginning, and when they have someone new it's like starting all over.

    At our daycare, I have to sign them in everyday and sign them out. When I sign them in, I put who is wearing which color on the sign in sheet so that anyone can tell the difference, even if their regular teacher is out of the room.
     
  7. Cristina

    Cristina Well-Known Member

    We decided that Connor would always have white sneakers. Aaron would have colored. (black, blue, etc..) That way the teacher only has to glance down at their shoes and see who it is. It doesn't make it obvious to the child and the teacher feels better knowing she isn't making a mistake.
     
  8. Eyler07

    Eyler07 Well-Known Member

    We do the same with the clothes. If we're going to a family thing where they arent able to tell them apart, I dress Brenden in blue and landon in green (we say Brenden - Blue and Landon - Lime.) We started that with the binks when they were babies, oen always had a blue bink and the other had one that was lime. Good Luck

    amanda
     
  9. annieuetz

    annieuetz Well-Known Member

    QUOTE(DebbiesTwins @ Mar 31 2008, 08:08 AM) [snapback]696302[/snapback]
    Hello there. My girls' preschool writes each child's name on a strip of masking tape (the kind painters use to protect the edges of doors & ceilings) and then sticks the tape on each child's back for the first few days or weeks when the child is new to the school. The tape doesn't bother the kids or stain the clothes. The teachers do this for all the kids, not just twins; it helps them learn the children's names faster.

    After a week or so the teachers will be able to tell your children apart.


    Our daycare does this same thing. It works really well. I could never do the color thing or shoe thing because my girls insist on picking out their own clothes and shoes and there is no way I could get them to pick a certain color. It is one fight I would rather just not have. In fact, the other day they came home from daycare and my DH sets one of them in the house and said "Zoey, go see Momma". I kept looking at her because she had the clothes on that Zoey wore to daycare but I was pretty sure it wasn't Zoey. I asked her what her name was and she said Zoey. Then her sister walks in the house and I am sure that the one that just walked in is Zoey. Find out the next day that they played at the water table and they asked to put on the other's clothes. Kind of scared me for a minute that DH and I didn't know which one was which :)
     
  10. Susanna+3

    Susanna+3 Well-Known Member

    Whatever you do, don't say something along the lines of "Well, A's face is rounder than B's..." My mother taught people my whole life that my face was rounder than my identical sister's face, as a method to help them tell us apart.....well, I grew up my whole life thinking in the back of my mind that I was the "fat" twin. Honest to goodness! My twin and I had a conversation a year or so ago in which she shocked me by telling me that her whole life she viewed herself as very attractive, when I had quite honestly, viewed myself as just average or even below average in looks.... how could 2 identical twins grow up with such a huge difference in self-perception??... we pinned it back to the "fat" twin/"thin" twin phenomenon...and here's the kicker... we've both been thin our whole lives, but with me usually being a couple of pounds heavier. LOL! So anyway, I discourage the use of too much comparison... or anything that really gives people an easy trick. Just tell them to get to know the twins. My friends who really knew us never had to be told how to tell us apart, eventually you just get to know the small differences in the face or speech or mannerisms.
     
  11. Angelasbabes

    Angelasbabes Well-Known Member

    QUOTE
    Whatever you do, don't say something along the lines of "Well, A's face is rounder than B's..."


    Wow, I wish I had learned of this sooner! I use that a lot with Brody - but I usually say that "Brody has more, more letters in his name, more cheek to his face"

    I will no longer use that for a comparison.

    I've never used the color with clothes - I don't think I'm that coherent in the morning! LOL

    My boys are NOT identical, never have been, but for some people it's hard to see their differences. Once they know them, there is a HUGE difference in personallity.

    We use the masking take at church for the boys, and it's for all kids they don't immediately recognize. My babysitter had problems at first, until she learned their personalities. Now she has no problems.
     
  12. Bebolini

    Bebolini Member

    Thank you all.I will try to think of what would be better for us

    I do totally agree with Susanna+3 that no comparison should be made.But my problem is that everyone does it.On the street , at home even.My in-laws always do it ,no matter how hard i try to explain them it is not fun at all."who#s taller. oh , you are bigger, you eat more....and so on.that makes me crazy,because i know how hard would be for the kids.....any way thank you and as soon as i have our first day i will let you know if it was tough.

    hugs :D
     
  13. 2monkeez

    2monkeez Well-Known Member

    QUOTE(Mommyto3preciousboys @ Mar 31 2008, 07:29 AM) [snapback]696209[/snapback]
    Once they spend some time with them and learn their personalities you will no longer have to differentiate them.



    I agree with that...I used to just tell the teacher (or who ever) what each was wearing each day ( ie..Matt's in blue today) the specific color thing worked for a while until they wanted to choose their own clothes.

    My only other advice is teach them to correct people. Mine are just now getting the idea that they are twins (we never used the term much for no specific reason). But to them that just means they were in my belly together, they have no idea that they look alike! Just last night they asked me why a friend always calls them the wrong names...I said, some people think you look just like your brother...they thought that was hysterical! Anyway...when someone calls them the wrong name, they just say "I'm Gavin (Matt)" It seems to work pretty well so far.
     
  14. kajulie

    kajulie Well-Known Member

    I"ve always done Lily in pink, Mia in purple. Now that they've been there a while I think I could dress them alike and they'd be able to know the difference though..
     
  15. Meximeli

    Meximeli Well-Known Member

    I went to Kindergarten with a set of ID twins, Chad always wore brown (It was the 70s) and Jamie blue. But I decided NOT to do that, because me and the other kids were totally dependant on the color and never got to tell them apart otherwise.
    I do do colors with posessions, as my daycare center asked us to provide cups, toothbrushes, combs, etc. So Bianca was pink and Gabby was yellow in that department.

    What I did was got some fabric paints and put B or G on most of their clothing. DH doesn't like them to were "commercials" so they don't have a lot of clothes with charater prints on them and it's become a habit to buy solid color things and decorate them ourselves.
     
  16. rayelynn

    rayelynn Well-Known Member

    Hi Tsveta! Glad you are back, I've missed you. I would do the tape with the name on it. The boys will probably never really know it is there anyway. Good luck. I will pm you for more updates!
     
  17. jfelix

    jfelix Well-Known Member

    My girls have been in daycare since August. They have different colored earrings in, and that is what I told the staff to use to differentiate them. That wasn't good enough. They asked me to dress one in a certain color every day. I did that for a while, but I think that by now they should be able to tell them apart. If there is a doubt about it, then they can go by the earrings....or ask them what their name is. Anyway, the director does not like me to dress them alike. The girls often want to dress alike. They will start to argue about who "gets to wear the bunny shirt", etc. I'm getting a little frustrated with the daycare.
     
  18. Ellen Barr

    Ellen Barr Well-Known Member

    We gave our boys different haircuts at around 18 months. It's amazing what a difference it makes. It almost immediately stopped the "Which one is this?" questions. People now argue with me that my boys couldn't possibly be identical :rolleyes: Anyway, it works really well for teachers, grandparents, friends, and (now at age 6) my boys really like it too. They are the ones that tell me it's time for a hair-cut because their hair is getting too similar.
     
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