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Shoelaces
What's the age record for not being able to tie shoelaces? I'm just wondering if DS is going to set it It's really interesting to watch -- DD had a friend who *had* to be able to tie her shoes, and she accomplished it at age 2. DS could not care less about this skill. So his shoes are all slip-ons, except for his new soccer shoes (size 5-1/2 already at age 9!) Maybe this is a good lesson for a rainy afternoon -- I'll sit him down and we'll learn to tie knots! Scott DD 11 and DS 9 |
#2
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In article ,
Scott wrote: What's the age record for not being able to tie shoelaces? I'm just wondering if DS is going to set it It's really interesting to watch -- DD had a friend who *had* to be able to tie her shoes, and she accomplished it at age 2. DS could not care less about this skill. So his shoes are all slip-ons, except for his new soccer shoes (size 5-1/2 already at age 9!) Maybe this is a good lesson for a rainy afternoon -- I'll sit him down and we'll learn to tie knots! Scott DD 11 and DS 9 This is a skill that has to be directly taught, not something kids figure out on their own. At least, I've never heard of a kid figuring it out on their own. So if he can't do it at 9, in the absence of some evidence that he has some sort of physical or mental problem, it's most likely that he just hasn't been taught, doesn't care, and has not had to learn for his own survival. Now that he has one pair of shoes that ties, I'd say, yes, it's time to just sit him down and teach him to tie his own shoes. It's unlikely to take long. If you turn it into an opportunity to learn other knots as well, it might be fun. I couldn't do that without a book (I just don't know very many knots) but it might be fun to get a book on knots, and sit down with him and the book and fugure out together how to tie all kinds of knots. -- Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care |
#3
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dragonlady wrote:
In article , Scott wrote: What's the age record for not being able to tie shoelaces? I'm just wondering if DS is going to set it It's really interesting to watch -- DD had a friend who *had* to be able to tie her shoes, and she accomplished it at age 2. DS could not care less about this skill. So his shoes are all slip-ons, except for his new soccer shoes (size 5-1/2 already at age 9!) Maybe this is a good lesson for a rainy afternoon -- I'll sit him down and we'll learn to tie knots! Scott DD 11 and DS 9 This is a skill that has to be directly taught, not something kids figure out on their own. At least, I've never heard of a kid figuring it out on their own. So if he can't do it at 9, in the absence of some evidence that he has some sort of physical or mental problem, it's most likely that he just hasn't been taught, doesn't care, and has not had to learn for his own survival. Oh, a large part of it is parental laziness , and that he doesn't care. DS is very much an I-don't-try-new-things- unless-pushed kind of kid, and this isn't something we've pushed. Now that he has one pair of shoes that ties, I'd say, yes, it's time to just sit him down and teach him to tie his own shoes. It's unlikely to take long. If you turn it into an opportunity to learn other knots as well, it might be fun. I couldn't do that without a book (I just don't know very many knots) but it might be fun to get a book on knots, and sit down with him and the book and fugure out together how to tie all kinds of knots. I'm trying to think of the knots I remember from Boy Scouts. A square knot, two half-hitches, and a bowline are the extent of my repertoire. And a hangman's noose. I could easily see DS getting into knot-tying, so I think when we finally do carve out some time to get him to learn this, it'll be easy enough. scott DD 11 and DS 9 |
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On 2005-04-08, Scott wrote:
What's the age record for not being able to tie shoelaces? I'm just wondering if DS is going to set it It's really interesting to watch -- DD had a friend who *had* to be able to tie her shoes, and she accomplished it at age 2. DS could not care less about this skill. So his shoes are all slip-ons, except for his new soccer shoes (size 5-1/2 already at age 9!) With the prevalence of elastic and velcro shoes these days, a lot of nine-year olds have not yet bothered to learn to tie shoelaces. Maybe this is a good lesson for a rainy afternoon -- I'll sit him down and we'll learn to tie knots! ------------------------------------------------------------ Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics (Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB) life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels) Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed) Affiliations for identification only. |
#5
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Scott wrote: What's the age record for not being able to tie shoelaces? I'm just wondering if DS is going to set it An 46 year old friend of mine recently told me that he has just learned he has been tying his shoes wrong his whole life. He never understood why his would untie so often -- he was skipping the initial knot. So I think the record is safely out of reach for your son! It's really interesting to watch -- DD had a friend who *had* to be able to tie her shoes, and she accomplished it at age 2. DS could not care less about this skill. So his shoes are all slip-ons, except for his new soccer shoes (size 5-1/2 already at age 9!) Sports will probably make this a "must" at some point for him -- if not, middle school gym class should do it. BTW, Henry is in a 12 at age 12... Maybe this is a good lesson for a rainy afternoon -- I'll sit him down and we'll learn to tie knots! He may be too old for this, but I still sometimes use the "bunny ear" approach -- tie a simple underhand knot and then fashion two "bunny ear" loops, and tie those in a second underhand knot. I find this actually holds better than the traditional way. -Dawn |
#6
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On 2005-04-08, Dawn wrote:
An 46 year old friend of mine recently told me that he has just learned he has been tying his shoes wrong his whole life. He never understood why his would untie so often -- he was skipping the initial knot. So I think the record is safely out of reach for your son! .... He may be too old for this, but I still sometimes use the "bunny ear" approach -- tie a simple underhand knot and then fashion two "bunny ear" loops, and tie those in a second underhand knot. I find this actually holds better than the traditional way. If you want an easy-to-use, unlikely-to-slip way to tie shoes, I recommend the method in http://www.becomingtheparent.com/all/subsection15.html ------------------------------------------------------------ Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics (Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB) life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels) Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed) Affiliations for identification only. |
#7
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"Scott" wrote in message ... dragonlady wrote: (...) Oh, a large part of it is parental laziness , and that he doesn't care. DS is very much an I-don't-try-new-things- unless-pushed kind of kid, and this isn't something we've pushed. I would think not pushing it is a good idea. There are more important things to push until there was a reason why he had to tie shoes (soccer). Better to push in other skills that he needed at the time. I used to think that parents were lazy for not pushing shoe-tying, until I saw a kid who gained indepenence wearing sneakers with velcro. Jeff |
#8
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On Fri, 8 Apr 2005 16:22:45 EDT, "Dawn" wrote:
He may be too old for this, but I still sometimes use the "bunny ear" approach -- tie a simple underhand knot and then fashion two "bunny ear" loops, and tie those in a second underhand knot. I find this actually holds better than the traditional way. My family calls this the "Mr. Rogers method". I learned to tie my shoes in the traditional manner, but my younger sister was having trouble learning how (this, of course, was back when you were tested on shoe-tying ability to enter kindergarten). Apparently, my mother saw Mr. Rogers teaching how to tie shoes on one of his shows, and he used that method. That clicked with my sister, and she still ties her shoes that way to this day. My daughter also had trouble learning to tie shoes, but she picked up the Mr. Rogers method right away and still uses it at age 8. No reason to tie the other way. If you watch the opening of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, though, you will notice that when he puts on his sneakers, he ties them in the traditional manner. He just presented the other method as easier for kids to learn. -- Tamex No matter how much Jell-o you put in the pool, you still can't walk on water. **remove Tricky Dick to reply by e-mail** |
#9
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In article ,
Tamex wrote: On Fri, 8 Apr 2005 16:22:45 EDT, "Dawn" wrote: He may be too old for this, but I still sometimes use the "bunny ear" approach -- tie a simple underhand knot and then fashion two "bunny ear" loops, and tie those in a second underhand knot. I find this actually holds better than the traditional way. My family calls this the "Mr. Rogers method". I learned to tie my shoes in the traditional manner, but my younger sister was having trouble learning how (this, of course, was back when you were tested on shoe-tying ability to enter kindergarten). Apparently, my mother saw Mr. Rogers teaching how to tie shoes on one of his shows, and he used that method. That clicked with my sister, and she still ties her shoes that way to this day. My daughter also had trouble learning to tie shoes, but she picked up the Mr. Rogers method right away and still uses it at age 8. No reason to tie the other way. Although I tie my own shoes the "traditional" way, I've never used any method other than the bunny ears / Mr. Rogers method to teach a child to tie shoes. It is way easier to teach! My friend taught me that way when I was in preschool, so I was at most four years old. (I don't know when I switched to the traditional method.) My oldest learned to tie shoes at 4yo also, but I am grateful for velcro with my youngest (now 4yo), whom I couldn't even imagine tying shoes yet! Even my oldest, who learned at four, still isn't that great at tying shoes tightly at 11yo! I think this is partly due to having had so many alternatives to tie shoes over the intervening years. Not only velcro, but slip-ons (we only did slip-ons once for running shoes, as I don't feel that they hold the foot securely enough, but they do use slip-ons for indoor shoes at school during the winter), sandals, winter boots, rain boots, etc. Also there is a "culture" of untied or loosely tied shoes, where the kids would try to slide in an out of tied shoes without untying and re-tying them. It's partly laziness, but partly that it is harder than it ought to be for many kids, due to lack of experience, which sort of gets them into a vicious cycle. Soccer shoes and hiking boots are the only shoes that regularly get tied properly --Robyn |
#10
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"Scott" wrote in message ... What's the age record for not being able to tie shoelaces? I'm just wondering if DS is going to set it My DD is 8 1/2 and still can't do it :-( I suppose it is worth mentioning that she is a kid that goes to OT for a myriad of sensory issues, and learning to tie her shoes is one of her next goals to work on. She knows the technique for tying, she just can't get them tied tight enough that they don't untie instantly. Other times she gets so frustrated by trying to get the loops the right size that she just loses it. She wears slip on and velcro shoes and buckle shoes. On the one pair of shoes she had that required laces, I bought those curly shoe laces that just need to be pulled on to tighten them up. Its really not a big deal for her (or me) because there are lots of styles of shoes available now that don't require tying...Lands End has a lot of styles, and her current sneakers are a Nike pair with elastic things criss-crossing over the tongue of the shoes that make slipping them on and off a breeze. |
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