Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Tying Shoes Made Easy

I cannot believe that it is July already! It seems like the summer is flying by and I have several goals I am working on with Bradley to help him get prepared for 2nd grade. One of my big goals was to teach him to tie his shoes. I tried teaching him the "bunny ears" technique, because that is how I tie shoes. However, the bunny ears were mighty elusive and just not working for Brad.

I know he wants to tie his shoes, but has some anxiety about not being able to manipulate the laces properly. Earlier this year he saw one of our friends at church with heely shoes. Bradley thought they were super cool and called them "ski shoes."

I promised Bradley that I would get him some ski shoes if he would learn to consistently tie his shoes on his own. Who wouldn't want ski shoes, right???

One day I Google searched "easy way to tie shoes" and found this video:


I watched the video and have to admit that I was a little skeptical, but I tried it out and figured it out myself pretty quickly. I modified the self talk a little to get Bradley to manipulate the strings properly. I tell him to make an "okay" hand gesture like the one below (but for both hands).
This helped him manipulate the lace between his index finger and middle finger better. Sure enough, within 5 minutes he had figured it out! We are still working on perfecting the tie, but I am so thankful I cam across this blog that promotes efficient and independent life skills for children: 

We still need to keep practicing, but I know ski shoes are in our near future!

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