Marilyn, That is a GREAT site!!!! I am going to show my 7 year old the "Ian Knot" and see how he does. Anything has to be better than the complex one he does now. It worked but...these new shoes have shorter and stiffer laces and it's harder for him. Thanks for the site!!! Here it is again in case anyone missed it. I just think it's a really fun site: http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/knots.htm
I have been wondering this too. My dd taught herself how to tie her laces at 5.5 years old. I never really thought about it until this year when I realized my 8 year old son can't tie laces. His shoes have never had them, it never occured to me. One of our goals for this year is learning how to tie. What a difference between a child so motivated she practically teaches herself (the same happened for riding a bike with no trainers, and whistling). My question is how do you get your child to actually try when they are perfectionists. My ds will quit everything if he can't do it perfectly the first time, and if he thinks he can't do it he won't even try. It becomes a battle over alot of stuff, somethings I just don't bother fighting about, but now he is getting older and needs to know these things. (he still has training wheels on his bike, I took them off and he wouldn't touch his bike for a whole month until I put them back on). How can I motivate him to learn this, now that he is in soccer his shoes have laces, and there is no way the coach is going to tie them for him if they come undone. I learned this the hard way, as at his first practice one came loose and he had to find me in tears, because the coach laughed at him for not being able to tie them. Help.
Sounds like your son is a Perect Paul and there isn't much you can do to change his personality. Just give him lost of encouragement to try things and you are going to have to teach him that it can't be perfect all the time. Seems to me that after the soccer event he might be motivated to learn to tie his shoes. Love him for ther personality that he has been blessed with.
My mother works in the shoe dept. at WalMart. One day a kid showed her how to tie with the bunny ears and she loved it. Now she shows kids and their moms how to tie that way and they all love her for it. She is 71 and still insists they can't run that store without her! Beth
