When it was time to send the children to school, it was also the time to make a very important decision. Would we put the three children together or in separate classes. There has been some research done supporting both decisions. The only option that all the books tell you to avoid is placing one child alone while the other two remain together. Invariably, the singular child will perform poorly.
Our school district has a rule that siblings must be placed in different classes. Some parents of twins fought the ruling and won. We chose to have the three children placed in different classes.
Kindergarten and First Grade were easier for the kids than they were for us. They each had plenty of arts and crafts type of homework and each required our full attention. Since they had three different assignments, homework lasted a long time. Scholasticly, the children differed. They had no problem adjusting socially, although we later found out that on the first day of school, the teachers had a very difficult time convincing them to leave each other.
Second Grade seemed to be less of a strain at homework time. They were following the same basic curriculum and were able to work with less supervision.
Discipline has been a problem from time to time. My wife and I are fairly strict, as we have been since they were three. There is no older sibling for them to look up to and try to act like. There are only two other children of the same age to play with. For that reason I felt that their play is sometimes childish. At age seven the boys started to show interest in sports, it was then that we started to allow them to venture out on their own with their friends on our street. While they
fight just like other brothers and sisters, there is still a bond between them that my wife and I pray never fades.
In third grade we decided to try having the children in the same class. It is difficult to choose whether the difference in their performances
was due to a higher maturity level or having them all in the same class. The fact remains that they all did better in third grade and the school principal has agreed to put them all in the
same class again in fourth grade.
Fourth grade was nearly a disaster. New York State developed a test to try and keep kids that fall behind from getting lost in the shuffle.
The problem with the test was that the teachers became so concerned that a poor performance by their students would be a bad reflection on them, that normal learning was shelved to prepare for the test. An entire semester was spent
away from the normal curriculum. Our children became so confused that they needed tutoring. Near the end of the year, we made the decision to take them out of public school and enroll them in a private school.
Fifth grade had begun wonderfully. The first thing we did was break schooling cardinal rule #1; we kept the boys together and put our daughter in a class by herself. So much for the rules!
Marissa is doing wonderfully and is enjoying her new found freedom. The boys are doing well in the smaller classroom setting. They are getting more individual
attention and no longer require remedial work.
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