How quickly do tweens grow?

Wow, she's growing as fast the the average persons hair grows.

Just think of the money you'll save on haircuts.

Yes she is very happy at the prospect of being taller than her older sister in less than half a year at this rate.

It defies logic how fast they grow. My 13 year old son went on a church trip for a week. When he came home, he'd gone from roughly my wife's height to clearly two inches taller. Both of us just stared at him when he stepped off the bus. 11 is just a hair early, but within the noise. It's usually between 12 and 13. Walk into any middle school and you can pick out the 7th graders from the 8th graders without any difficulty. My 11 year old daughter is starting that phase. You can see the changes in her face. I'm sure she will shoot up soon.

When I was in 4th grade. I and a girl named Marion were the tallest in the class. We went to separate schools for a few years and when I got to the 9th grade at 6-3, I thought I should look her up. When she answered the door, I was a head taller than her. Go figure.

I just checked against where we measure Mo. He grows, on average, about 3 inches a year -- but it all seems to happen at once! One day everything fits and the next day all of his clothes are too small. It's alarming!

This year his voice is cracking and other signs of puberty are appearing and he seems taller every day. I'll bet he beats his normal 3 inches of growth this year.

It could be the puberty thing - she definately has most of the beginning signs and has for a while.

Ok so I looked up a chart for average height for girls and this could explain it...
7 Yrs 43 ins
8 Yrs 45 ins
9 Yrs 47 ins
10 Yrs 51 ins
11 Yrs 52 ins
12 - 13 Yrs 60 - 63 ins
14 - 15 Yrs 63 - 64 ins

It seems each year is about 2 or 3 inches or so, except between 11 and 12 - at the low end it showing a spurt of 9 inches-- could that be right?

Any way my 11 year old appears tall on this chart - but she is maybe average or just a little above average when I see her with her team (but perhaps there are just taller girls playing basketball). She was 59 1/2 inches and she is 11 and 1/2 yrs old.

I do think though this chart is on low side, though other charts and grids I saw look similar.

Of course it's a puberty thing.

Nine inches sounds like a lot to grow in one year even when factoring in puberty!

There was a 5th grade girl at Mo's elementary school who was just under six feet. I thought she was a teacher until I saw her face.

Mo's best friend, who is still only twelve, is already six feet tall! Not lanky tall but solid tall.

The size variation of kids this age is crazy.

My 5th grader's travel basketball team was good enough to be invited to division 1 state tournament. Basically the top 10 or so teams in the state were invited. We have a short team on average (considering we are in a small town you can understand that) - but the girls play very well together as a team and we have a good coach. But our girls look like 5th graders.

Any way we had no thoughts of being one of the top teams - we came in third. We lost to a team that had a girl 5'9" solidly built - she looked at least 15 years old - all her team had to do was pass the ball high whenever they got into trouble. My daughter at one point was flung by this girl. No foul called because all the girl did was grab the ball and try to rip it out of my daughter's hands - my daughter held on and when the girl let go she was tossed like a sac of potatoes.

Yeah there is huge differences in height, weight and physically maturity at that age.

We see the same thing in football. Some of those kids are HUGE. There is always speculation that they've been held back in school to advance their athletic star power. I know it happens but as Mo's friend exemplifies, some of these kids are just big.

I questioned that about this particular girl -- especially as she was invited to play for the 8th grade travel team because of her ability and size. She didn't want to.

My older daughter kept saying she can't be 11 - (that would be if you started school when you are supposed to the high end age wise of 5th grade) - not only was the girl significantly bigger, but fully matured and played with a maturity you see in girls much older. I wouldn't doubt she was held back for one reason or another. There were girls close to her height we played against, but you could tell they could be in 5th grade just developing and growing sooner -- but this girl was off the charts.

Oh and I wonder why such a girl would not want to play up -- maybe not several years ahead, but one year? How fun can it be when you it isn't even much of challege for you?

My own daughter is playing up for town softball and has done this when she first started playing basketball because of the different rules in age groups. When she first started playing bb - her age would use a lower hoop --- she had only played using a regular sized hoop. And in softball town does by grade, travel by age so travel uses larger ball and further distances while in town she would be down one level.

When asked if it would bother her to play up -- she shrugged no -- I'd rather have the challenge.