Tips for Juggling Twins’ Extracurricular Activities

As your twins get older, you’ll want to put them in some extracurricular activities. This might be dance, gymnastics, soccer, or any of the myriad activities available for kids.

Scheduling Twin Activities

The challenge with twins is that you’ve got scheduling and financial constraints with two kids.

Our twin girls have loved dance classes. We’ve had them both in the same class, at the same time, for the last few years.

If you can keep your kids in the same activity, it will help with the scheduling conflicts that might arise if they were each running off to different corners of town.

When your twins are young, they don’t know what activities are available. Take advantage of this by offering them only activities that you know will be convenient for you.

Buying Gear

With activities come uniforms, outfits, and gear. Unfortunately with twins, they don’t necessarily benefit from hand-me-downs or sharing the same gear. This is especially true if they are both participating in the same thing at the same time.

Look for used clothing or gear at consignment shops or swapping opportunities with other parents.

Different Skill Levels

What happens when one twin outpaces the other? Should you keep them in the same class or start to separate them?

When we had our girls in gymnastics, one of them was ready to advance to the next class. The coach suggested that we not move her up so she could be with her sister.

You’ll eventually have your twins separate and do different things. Think about if this is the time for that to happen or not.

When Twins Want Different Activities

Your twins won’t always want to do the same thing. Scheduling constraints will impact your kids’s choices. Talk to them about the situation.

You might have to drag one twin along and just sit and watch if she doesn’t want to do what the other is doing. Sometimes you just can’t be everywhere at the same time. When explaining trade-offs to your twins, be sure they understand that by not joining their twin in an activity, they may have to do something they don’t like to do (like sitting and waiting).

Picture by kellyv