We needed to buy Geetle a new pair of gym shoes this week. Her Skeechers have not held up, in my opinion. They had those elastic laces and one of the laces broke, leaving the shoe very loose and floppy on her foot…even after we tried to tie the lace back together. Anyway…if you are almost 7 and you need a new pair of shoes…chances are your parents are going to make the big call and say no more elastic and velcro shoes. Its time to learn to tie your shoes!
We had played around with this a few months ago, but she could not get the hang of it and we put it on the back burner. But, today she was motivated. We let her pick out a new pair of shoes and then a special pair of laces. She practiced off and on throughout the day, mostly of her own accord. We never forced her to. There was just something about those new shoes. She really wanted to wear them.
By the end of the day, she had pretty much gotten the hang of it. I sat behind her and tied the shoes as she watched. We named the parts of the process (the loop, the stick, the holding thumb, the poking finger, etc). I encouraged her to slow down and finish gently. (she tends to throw a Hail Mary-Oh Crap move in at the end when things aren’t going well). Then tonite, right before bed time, she got it. She knows where the loops go, when to bring out the holding thumb and that it only works if you are holding each loop at the end when you pull hard.
Check out her handiwork: (and shoes that inspired it all)
As she said to me several times today “you don’t see plaid shoes everyday!”
*we like to say “HootHoot!” whenever Geetle tells us she will never learn something because its too hard. When she was about 4 years old she wanted to learn to whistle so we told her to practice. She walked around saying “Hoot Hoot. Hoot Hoot. ” in a high pitched voice because that is what whistling sounds like to a 4 year old, I guess. Cracked us up. She used to say “Hoot Hoot! Hoot Hoot!” and then scowl and say “Oh! I will never learn to whistle!” She did eventually learn to whistle, by the way. But all that “Hoot Hoot” didn’t really help. Made us laugh, sure. But didn’t really help.
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Way to go, Geetle!