Monday, April 28, 2008

The end of the velcro age


Velcro shoes for kids are an amazing development. Shoes on. Shoes off. Adjust them yourself as you play. No adult help needed. We've had the kids in velcro or slip-on shoes since forever. I think I had a pair of sneakers that tied for Brian when he was about 1yr old, maybe the same for Honor, but not since. They were too much of a bother. I always had to try 2-3 times to tie them comfortably. We had knots. They could not "do it myself!". So, velcro has been the shoe of choice.

Well, Brian is outgrowing kids' shoes. There are still plenty of velcro closure and slip-on type shoes, but now, a lot of the coolest shoes in his size are tie-shoes. I ordered him a pair, and we pulled them out of the box. I know he's been tying some knots - his taekwondo belt - but wasn't sure about shoes. I had him try them on and give it a whirl. He was a first time pass. A little slow, but he has it. With a little practice he could be comfortable wearing them to school where he needs to be able to get them on and off easily for PE, swimming, taekwondo, etc.

Honor (in the photo) put them on and tried her hand at tying too. She gets it about 75% of the time - her odds are better when Ramses isn't batting at the strings as she is working. She's been practicing with yarn. We have little bows and knots all over the house - on door knobs, dresser drawer pulls, table legs, etc.

So, in game-ese, I guess we've leveled up. That wasn't hard at all.

1 comment:

junglemama said...

Yeah! He'll get it. William still struggles.