It's sad been a twin when......

Forewarned this post is a rant.

I'm a little bit wound up right now. Why? Let me tell you why? If you are a parent of multiples you may completely understand this.....

You would like your children to attend a group class, like swimming or those toddler classes, you know those group classes where the parent - child attends. There maybe singing, dancing, or other body moving/learning activities and a professionally trained instructor/teacher. You pick up the phone to make enquiries and you find out it is strictly one child to one adult. Your husband works, your nearest family is a 4.5 hour drive away. Eeryone you know is working or has their own children they are caring for. You slowly realise your multiples will miss out on this opportunity.

Apart of me (and it's very tiny) understands, but it saddens me that their twinness combined with a set of circumstances will mean that they are excluded from participating in certain activities.

To the helpful lady who answered the phone, did it ever occur to you that you have NEVER had twins attend because your establishment's system, processes, lack of ability to think outside of the box, excludes twins/multiples from participating? Did you feel embarassed when I said as much to you? I felt embarrased for you when you could not clearly articulate the one child to one adult policy "Because it's always been this way," is NOT an acceptable answer.

If you are attending a class which involves one child to one parent..... take a look around. Any twins there? No? Perhaps this is why.

Rant over. Thanks for reading.

UPDATE - Getting rid of the bottle

A drinking milk from a glass.

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about getting rid of the bottle. You can read it here. I thought it was time I gave an update. All the bottles and sippy cups have been packed up. They are now in a box located in our shed at our block of land, which is approximately 24.2 km or a 25 minute drive away.

The first week was the hardest. G put up a fight, she started drinking out of the small milk cartons I gave her, but she must have suspected it was linked to the lack of bottles, so she gave up drinking from the cartons as well. So for the first two weeks there was no drinking of milk.

Magically on the third week G realised there would be no more bottles. She finally stopped playing or ignoring her glass of milk, picked it up and drank from the glass. I always knew she was capable, it was a matter of choice. Once I took the options way she showed that she could and would drink milk from a glass.

I have however just jumped ahead. There were other things I did as well. As I stated in my previous post, our dinner time, bath time, outside play time, bedtime reading and going to bed is all changed. Here's what happened.
  

Previous Rhythm	Current Rhythm
Wake Up	Wake up
Breakfast	Breakfast
Dressed/Brush teeth	Bath/Shower time
Outside play/outing	Dressed
Snack	Inside Play/Outing
Inside play	Snack
Lunch	Lunch
Reading	Reading
Nap	Nap
Snack	Activity (baking, drawing, painting,)
Activity (Baking, drawing, painting)	Snack
TV (30 minutes)	TV (30 minutes)
Dinner	Outside Play/walk/ Dinner Prep
Bath ti	Dinner
Bottle	Reading
Reading	Wash face, hands, brush teeth and get ready for bed
Bed	Bed

The most important change was moving bath time from the evening to the morning. The second important change was changing outside play from the morning to the afternoon. I changed outside play to the afternoon as it is getting hotter here and the yard is bathed in sun in the morning. In the afternoon it tends to be cooler and there is more shaded cover.

The rhythms above are fluid, most days are like this, but not always. Some days we have commitments and activities that require us to leave the house.  A & G enjoy these outing, but I try to ensure we don't cram it all in the same day or successive days.

 

Just for me

 

This post is not related to Montessori or raising twins. This post is about me and something that I do that is purely and selfishly for me.

In life we wear many hats, daughter, sister, aunt, best friend, employee, employer, business partner, lover, wife, mother, husband, father, teacher, the list is every growing. I believe it is important (for me) to undertake an activity that is does not involve my children or husband.

BOOK: Playmates by Jane Tanner

"At about a year and a half, the child discovers another fact,

and that is that each thing has its own name.

This show that..... s/he has been able to single out the nouns, and especially the concrete nouns."

 The Absorbent Mind, Maria Montessori

 

New to our bookshelf is this book, Playmates by Jane Tanner. Every once in a while I come across a book which finds a special place in my heart and this is one such book. This book is written and illustrated by Jane Tanner. The pictures are breathtakingly real and so beautiful.

Thankfully my children adore this book as much as I do.  At 16 months they are undergoing a explosion of words. A in particular shows a keen interest in the naming of things.