OK, I feel it might be therapeutic to air that there are a few basic mothering duties in which I
big, bold, capital letter FAIL.
It isn’t that I don’t WANT to do these, but often my best intentions are procrastinated to a point of absurdity.
For instance, Until today none of my three boys could tie their shoes.
*gasp*
I know! I know! It is totally unacceptable.
At ages 10, 7 and 5 this
should be a life skill.
A life skill taught to them by their mother.
It isn’t that I haven’t
thought about it. I
think about it all the time. I even picked up a little cardboard shoe with mock laces to practice.*
*The fact that the text around this teaching aid was written at a 4 year old level was not lost on me.
5 years ago when Ryan was 5, I attempted a mini-lesson that didn’t get very far. He was able to do the first step, but since he wore velcro, crocs, and slip-ons he never was forced to practice on a daily basis.
I keep
thinking that this summer I will take a morning to teach all three of them. I will get it all over in one day.
This morning, 10 minutes prior to leaving for school, Ryan(10) came to me with a shoe with laces and said, “I have to know how to tie a double knot today for history.”
*panic*
Double knot? We aren’t even in single knot territory yet!
I stopped making Reid’s lunch long enough to show him how to tie a shoe. Then he did it with me holding onto his right hand. Then he did it himself. Then I walked away and he did it again himself. I returned and showed him how to make it a double. He did it one time and said, “cool. thanks.”
The whole process took 2 minutes.
Yes, I have been stressing, procrastinating, agonizing over something that literally took 2 minutes.
Which leads me to believe I might have happened into a good strategy…
It is super easy to teach a 10 year old how to tie his shoes.
Good! That means I have three years left before I have to worry about it. Thanks! 😉
Velcro may be the end of society as we know it, but it’s also the saving of preschool teachers’ sanity. If I have to undo one more knotted lace while the entire line of preschoolers climbs the walls waiting to go outside I will re-knot it around my own neck!! AAUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH
Seriously, in the last year, I have sat down at least a dozen times to teach my 6-year-old how to tie his shoes, and we’ve never made it past the first loop before some distraction or crisis arises that forces us to stop. On the plus side, he knows the first step like the back of his hand and has taught it somewhat successfully to his little sister.
You have just summed up my entire homeschool philosophy: “Just wait until she’s older (and quite possibly in a panic) and she’ll practically teach herself.”
One of my Minions can (10yr old) and the other Minion cannot (7yr old). The 7 yr old just doesn’t have the fine motor skills for it, so for now we wear sketchers z-straps or what ever. I am sure he will learn it eventually.
What a great idea! Just wait until they’re old enough to reason with. HRH can do it. Gremlin just ties a series of knots that actually work to keep his sneakers on. As in “impossible to remove” on.
It’s the curse of velcro. I am so glad that it’s not just me. Griffin just learned to tie his last year. And even at that, he doesn’t do it well. They are all loose and it takes all of the Mommy-restraint I have not to re-tie them every morning. And Luke? Well, he’s seven. We’ve got time….