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

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

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

"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

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.

"Kevin Karplus" wrote in message
...
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.


I dunno know. Where I live, Velcro shoes are for BABIES and kids over maybe
6 wouldn't be caught dead wearing them. Plus, they are required to have tie
shoes for PE, so I really can't think of any kid who can't tie their shoes
by the time they're 6 or 7 at the very latest. In our neck of the woods,
kids are SO shoe knowledgable that they would really notice a kid that wore
velcro shoes past the age where they are 'cool'.

Marjorie

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.

On 2005-04-13, animzmirot wrote:

"Kevin Karplus" wrote in message
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.


I dunno know. Where I live, Velcro shoes are for BABIES and kids over maybe
6 wouldn't be caught dead wearing them. Plus, they are required to have tie
shoes for PE, so I really can't think of any kid who can't tie their shoes
by the time they're 6 or 7 at the very latest. In our neck of the woods,
kids are SO shoe knowledgable that they would really notice a kid that wore
velcro shoes past the age where they are 'cool'.

Marjorie

I guess I'm lucky. Very few of the elementary kids at my son's school
seem to be very clothing aware. Perhaps I'm just projecting my
son's attitudes onto his classmates, but I haven't seen much evidence
of teasing about clothing or use of clothing for status. Yu-gi-oh
cards, on the other hand, ...

"animzmirot" wrote in message
...
Plus, they are required to have tie
shoes for PE,

Hmmm, that seems like an odd requirement to me. Given the number of kids I
see whose shoes are forever coming untied, I'd think that shoes that close
with velcro would be considerably safer for PE!

My 7yo is perfectly capable of tying his shoes, but because the shoelaces
they put in shoes these days seem to be so prone to coming undone, he
prefers the ones that close with velcro. And, to my knowledge, no one gives
him a hard time about it. If anyone did, I'm sure he'd refuse to where them.
--
Be well, Barbara
Mom to Mr. Congeniality (7), the Diva (5) and the Race Car Fanatic (3)

I have PMS and ESP...I'm the bitch who knows everything! (T-shirt slogan)

"animzmirot" wrote in message
...
Plus, they are required to have tie
shoes for PE,

Why? This seems like an arbitrary rule with no basis. To me, I'd think that
the slip on kind of shoes that I described or velcro shoes would be safer
for PE than tie shoes (less likely to come untied and trip someone). FYI,
the kind of slip on shoes my DD has look something like this:
http://www.landsend.com/cd/fp/prod/0...673414169 580
Do you think that most kids would consider these dorky? I've seen tons of
high school students (and adults) wearing similar ones recently...they are
very much 'in'.

"Tracey" wrote in message
m...

"animzmirot" wrote in message
...
Plus, they are required to have tie
shoes for PE,

Why? This seems like an arbitrary rule with no basis. To me, I'd think
that
the slip on kind of shoes that I described or velcro shoes would be safer
for PE than tie shoes (less likely to come untied and trip someone). FYI,
the kind of slip on shoes my DD has look something like this:

http://www.landsend.com/cd/fp/prod/0...673414169 580
Do you think that most kids would consider these dorky? I've seen tons of
high school students (and adults) wearing similar ones recently...they are
very much 'in'.

You can get elastic laces made for tri athletes to make any tie shoes into
slip on athletic shoes. I put those in my running and tennis shoes earlier
this year when I broke my wrist. It's pretty much impossible to tie your
shoe with a broken wrist.