Well, actually I am not sure that it would be considered particularly early. Kids in DS/DD's 5th grade classes last year were asking each other "out" and there were talks of boyfriend/girlfriend pairs, especially during the 2nd half of the school year. A few of these involved their friends and if physical, I hope they were only mildly so but can't say for sure.
DD11 only had one crush and it was from K/1 while DS11 only had one crush that lasted a couple of years in elementary. They were not "physical" in any way. As far as I know so far this year in 6th grade, there isn't anyone special but they are extremely picky.
Perhaps partly due to the twin thing, both DS and DD interact with the opposite gender more than typical. My two are also small and likely to hit puberty late as well so I have been concerned with what will be happening around them in the next couple of years. In fact, many of their classmates are physically my size and larger. What is also somewhat disturbing was learning that they knew of a few 6th graders at their school who were held back and are already 14 to their 11.
