I've been surprised by a lot of things children these days know how to do with technology. I'm even more surprised at the small things that kids CANNOT do these days. In an age where Velcro shoe fasteners are available in just about every kind of shoe you can imagine, it's no wonder kids haven't learned to tie their shoes. I remember as a child that if I wore any kind of athletic shoe it had laces. The only time I didn't have laces was in my patent leather dress shoes or summer sandals. In the last year I've come across children who were in 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade who didn't know how to tie their shoes.
My oldest son, who turned 5 this year was also not able to tie his shoe laces. I thought "I can show him no problem." I tried to show him the bunny ear technique, but he just couldn't understand what I was doing. I thought to myself there has got to be a fun and easy way to teach this skill to him without getting him or myself frustrated.
I came across a book at his school book fair called "One, Two, Tie Your Shoes!" by Lorraine Gregory. This book is so simple and fun looking, but genius at the same time. My son literally took the book for 30 minutes and BAM he was able to tie the laces on the book. He then put his new pair of athletic shoes on and tied both his laces. In the book it shows you 3 ways to tie them with a matching rhyme. My son was so proud! (not to mention both my husband and I)
To all you out there trying to find a fun way to teach your kids to tie their shoes, buy this book!
You need to give that to Matthew for Christmas...haha he still don't know how to tie his shoes! :)))
ReplyDelete