Achievement Unlocked: Tie Shoes

Liam is nearly 6.5 years old and doesn't know how to tie his own shoes.  There are two reasons for this.  The first is that I'm lazy and haven't sat down to teach him.  The second is that I'm lazy and I don't buy him shoes with laces.  So, everything is velcro and he can get them on without my help.

But, I have a very clear memory of myself in kindergarten.  I remember that there were construction paper cut outs of shoes hanging on the wall in the classroom with various class members names on them.  I approached the teacher and asked her why my name wasn't up there.  She told me that those were the kids that could tie their own shoes.  My response was classic.  "Oh that?  I've been able to do that for ages!"  Then I proceeded to demonstrate for her so she could put my name on one of those construction paper shoes.

Here Liam is, just 6 weeks away from starting first grade and he doesn't have that knowledge.  Yesterday I sat down with him and a pair of my cross trainers to coax him through this young rite of passage.

I figured it would take more than one teaching session and quite a bit more practice but in about 15 minutes flat he picked up.  He started to get frustrated a couple of times but I tried to keep it fun and he worked with me until he was doing it all by himself without me talking him through it.

The next thing I knew he was clomping around like this:

Next up:  buying him tie shoes of his very own.