Have you done this? Are there any things you did to help the teacher know who was who? Any tips and advice would be much appreciated!! Thanks!

My kids look nothing alike, but here are my thoughts about this.

If you want to have them all in the same class, make sure that they have an assigned color. If they are girls, maybe a hair bow. I saw a show once with id quads and the mother put name tags on them and after about a month, the teacher and all the kids were able to tell who was who, but she continued to put the name tags on them.

In our school district, the principal would not have let us have them all in the same class. He "very strongly" suggested that we split ours up 2 and 2 (which was not what I wanted to do) and told me he felt having them all in the same class would be "overwhelming" for the teachers. One of the teachers even told me that she didn't want all 4 of them in her class.

Good luck with everything.

Dawn

Mom to Samantha, Jeremy, Paige and Christian

Born 12/12/03 @ 31w 2d



http://lovinglifewithquads.blogspot.com

I printed a bunch of mailing labels with their names. The half that said Camille were in dark rose/pink, the half that said Meredith were in dark purple. I stuck the labels on their backs & safety-pinned them (to keep them from switching). The colors allowed the teachers to identify who was who even when they were across the room and couldn't actually read.

I also gave the teacher some hints to help.
- Camille is a very light, floaty, bouncy kind of mover - Meredith kind of barrels around with no wasted motion
- Camille's hair is just a tick lighter in color, and a touch longer - it also has a little more wave than M's, which is stick-straight
- Meredith's assigned color is purple, Camille's is pink - they almost always have something on in their color (shoestring, hairbow, etc.) - they also tend to color in their assigned color, choose math manipulatives in their assigned color, etc. I think half the time my kids' teacher can tell even when she is looking at them from the back just from what they have chosen to work with.

Just think of how YOU tell them apart and tell the teacher that. If you label them for the first month, the teacher will probably figure it out on her own. There are TWO other sets of identicals in my kids' class, and both really are identical. I asked the teacher how she could tell who was who, and after she told me, I never struggled again. "Caroline starts with a C, a round letter, and she has a rounder face than Mary." "Tasha has a more exotic-sounding name, and she looks a little more exotic somehow than her sister Shelby." And when I looked, sure enough, she was right!

BGG born 4/25/05 at 31w1d




New baby girl born 9/19/06

We did three different colored shoe laces. After a few weeks, the teachers didn't need to look to know who was who, so we quit using them.

Loren
GGG Jan.2005 @ 28wks

Sweetened Taters - http://sweetenedtaters.blogspot.com

Love the shoelace idea Loren. Very subtle.

Andi

As a teacher I really like the color coding idea just for the first week or two. After that you shouldn't have to worry about it. I've never had both identical twins in my class together, but have had one of a few sets. It's never been an issue. Even when they choose to dress exactly the same with the same hair cut within a couple of weeks I could tell them apart as they were walking down the hall in the morning.

Have no idea what I'll want for my own kids when the time comes, but as a teacher I would love to have a whole set of triplets or quads in my room! Do you know how much easier it would be for me? Only having to dial one number to update about 4 kids! Only having to learn one set of parent names and one family history! Knowing that 4 forms are going to all come back at the same time - or if not only calling one parent with a reminder. Ahhh sounds like heaven...

Jennifer
GBG 2/20/2007
@29 weeks

Thanks everyone for your comments. Lots of good ideas! I was worried I'd have to come up with three different haircuts for them. Luckily our principal is willing to put them all together though he did think it was an odd request. Can't believe they will be in kindergarten so soon. Boy is life going to be different this fall!

I do know a pair of identical boys who have haircuts to tell them apart. The nice thing is that it's something the boys don't make a big deal about. One has a longer cut and the other more of a buzz. Their personalities fit the cuts too. After a while with them you can tell who's who by how they act.

I will say that I have found it helpful to style the girls hair different for Dr. appts. I just tell them when I get there that E has a ponytail today and they write that on the chart. Maybe if one of them does like to do that you could just commit to pony tails for the first week or 2; or maybe diffent barrettes or something.

My guess would be that the more subtle to the triplets; the more normal they will feel (mine just figure the nurses all can tell them apart and feel better thinking they are remembered as individuals) Of course, they aren't identical either.

I will add that I talked to a set of older ID twins who now hated the color they were forced to wear as a kid. Just some food for thought.

Andi

One of my ID girls still wears "her" color (pink), every day since the day she was born. Almost every piece of clothing she owns is pink, her room, bedding, shoes, etc.
The other ID girl has gone through several "her" colors and is anything but pink.
There is no hard and fast rule that works for every set of multiples.

We opted to separate our trio when they were in school. I gave teachers hints to help them ensure girls weren't switching classes. (ie freckle above eyebrow, or one is a lefty/righty, etc)
Handwriting can also be a strong clue as to which child has written the work.

Good luck and enjoy!

Tracey, busy mom to:
Michael (16)
Francesca (15)
Matt, Lexi, Gabi (13)
AFS exchange student Alice (17)