Tying Shoes

John and Bella both got new shoes yesterday.  Usually I get John shoes with straps but Bella can't use those (because she walks on her toes and the stress of that breaks the straps in a matter of weeks.)  Anyway I got John shoes that tie as well and figured it would be a good time to teach them to tie their own shoes.  I had tried to teach Bella last year but she just wasn't quite ready.

I looked online for some tips and saw a suggestion to put strings through a box to practice.  Perfect, especially since we had new shoe boxes to use.  Plus by putting two strings we could tie at the same time and she could watch me do it.  Bella caught on very quickly.  After doing it several times on the box we moved on to real shoes.









John said he didn't want to learn and I told him he didn't have to.  I really wasn't sure if he was ready for it, as far as motor skills go.  But as soon as he saw how excited Bella was about her new skill (which included calling Daddy at work to tell him) John wanted to learn too.  And he caught on fast.