SAILEE
Sailee is great at making lists. Whether its playdates, groceries, vacations, packing , anything...Once she knows about it, out comes her notepad and pencil and she gets busy with making a list and planning for it. She is good at breaking down a problem into smaller chunks and then re-iterating over those chunks until it makes sense (atleast to her :)) There are many such examples - but the most recent ones are from UIL story telling practice sessions. After the UIL story is told to them, they are given a sheet of paper and 10 mins to write down something that will help them retell the story. The first things Sailee wrote were the name of the story and character names, since those are the most important and very easily forgotten while telling the story. Writing those down made those get imprinted in her memory and then she proceeded to use the remaining time to write the story events. Another example is from Destination Imagination. When they were given the task of coming up with 2 different world cultures for the team, She made a list first about what kind of differences she would think about - such as clothing and food. Then she listed out countries that she thought has interesting clothing and food. Then listing out by each country what clothing and food she knew about it or found by asking Siri (iPAD). I like to see her mind working like that to break a topic into smaller chunks and addressing the chunks, rather than attacking it as a whole.
Sailee loves stage performances. She is animated and has excellent memory about the things she reads. She can retell a story or conversation she heard or read with great detail. She can also make stories and songs on the fly. She and her sister Saloni have a video collection of many of their songs and performances that they put up every night. They frequently run out of memory on their tablets simply because of the sheer volume of such "shows".
Sailee is friendly, kind and understanding. Being the older twin, she typically is the one to compromise in sticky situations and let her twin sister Saloni get the better hand. She is mature and can be reasoned with. Even though she is a twin, she often feels like the middle child (being the older twin) and that leads to confusion in her mind about her placement and decisions that she has to make. But she is amazing at resolving such situations by finding an agreeable middle ground.
Sailee is a very expressive girl. If she is put in a group that calls for a leader, she does not shy away from such an opportunity. She's always full of ideas and very inquisitive, always asking for explanations for things/places/words that she hears/reads for the first time. She's not shy and loves stage performances of any kind. She's friendly and approachable to both peers and children younger than her. She's afraid of "monsters", but can become the brave one if her twin Saloni is afraid too.
SALONI
Saloni has very good creative thinking. It can sometimes be very abstract and hard to understand, but its perfectly clear to her. She is very descriptive. One example from UIL story telling practice session - After the UIL story is told to them, they are given a sheet of paper and 10 mins to write down something that will help them retell the story. Saloni can write most of story (which was read to them for 20 mins) in that 10 min time on her paper. Sometimes she runs out of paper. Its amazing that at her age she can focus for that long on writing what she heard without stopping. The UIL guide has to ask her to stop writing after the 10 mins, when most kids her age or older have finished already or did not know what to write. She likes to finish a task that she started (and likes). She is always on top of any homework from school and is paranoid about missing something. That even include artwork. Once she spent 2 hours on filling up an entire 8X11 sheet of paper with tie-die design and did not want to stop until she had filled up the whole page. She practices drawing Anime girl sketches from her friend, until she get its the way she wants it to look. She inspires her twin Sailee to draw. She has volunteered to make costumes and props for their Destination Imagination team and is already running various ideas for it by the team leader and the team members.
Saloni loves stage performances as much as her twin Sailee. She is the content contributor to their home productions, with costumes, drawings, cards and songs. Sailee directs, they both write, Saloni provides props and they both perform. They form a very good team. Saloni has a good memory and creativity to use bits about what they read or learned in their productions. She has a rock collection, bead collection, "fairy items" collection, and just shiny interesting stuff collection.
Saloni is very social. She is always planning playdates every chance she gets. She loves to host her friends at our house and is ready with her friends' parents phone numbers and permissions, even before I get a chance to ask them myself. She can be the boss of everyone or everyone's baby. She may have a hard time controlling her emotions at times, that leads to out bursts - but they can be fixed with a long hug and lots of loving words. She loves to give hand drawn cards to friends.
Saloni always brings a smile to peoples faces. She is friendly, emotional and considerate. She loves to hug. She is clear most of the times about what she wants or feels, and I rarely get a "I don't know" from her. She is creative and is always drawing something when she is not making "shows" with her twin Sailee. She doesn't hide her feelings and it's not hard to guess whats going on with her just by looking at her. She feels safe with her twin Sailee. She loves purple, sparkles, princesses.
