Twins at kindergarten - making friends?

[penmanship]

My twins are 3.5 and have been going to kindergarten for two afternoons a week since February (we’re not in the UK).

They don’t seem bothered about making friends with the other kids and prefer to play with each other, although one has recently began to mention other children’s names. I didn’t think anything of this until recently I’ve noticed the other kinder mums talking about play dates - discussing past play dates they’ve had and arranging new ones at the kinder gates. I’m beginning to wonder whether my kids are missing out a bit.

Part of me feels like it would be good for my twins to have more interaction with other children, while the other part gets why they just want to be with each other, especially when they’re still so young.

I know I can just ask my twins who they’d like to have over and arrange some play dates, but I’m wondering what other families’ experiences were with twins making kinder friends? Did they prefer to play with each other or were they making independent friendships at this age?

Do your DTs play together well out of kindergarten @penmanship? My boys (now almost 4) fight like cat and dog but were still fairly clingy to each other at preschool! If yours get on together anyway then I can understand why they just stick together.

If it's an option, could you put them into kindergarten separately for an afternoon or two? DTS2 was off preschool sick for a week and the staff reported back that DTS1 really blossomed then and made friends with two other little boys. It's made me realise that they'd do better in separate classes at school.

We haven't gone in for playdates anyway to be honest but have met up with other kids at the park. Maybe you could suggest that rather than one on one events?

@RubySlippers77 They do play really well, which is lovely to see but I think makes it harder for them to interact with other children (or at least gives them less incentive to do so!).

That's a good idea about putting them in separate classes for one session - next year they'll go to kinder 4 days a week, so I'll look at doing that. There has been a few occasions where one of them has been sick, but the other one has point blank refused to go to kinder without them! I think it will be a case of once they actually get there, it will be fine.

Love the park suggestion - I'm an introvert myself so it means they can socialise and also takes the pressure off me having to arrange and host a playdate, haha! Winning all round :)

I think first it’s good to just let them play with each other and give them some time to ease up and get used to the situation..

That being said, I would also use some gentle tactics to help them make more friends.

One way that we found helpful was, we used to have a friendship journal called, my friends forever.
My son would pass that around to his kindergarten friends to fill-in which was fun for him, and by doing so it also helped him connect with his kindergarten friends.