Bunny Ears

When shopping for kids' shoes this past summer I had specific requirements: No elastics, no velcro, no zippers. I was looking for good old fashioned LACES. They aren't easy to come by on kids shoes.

My goal was to force myself to take the time to teach the kids how to tie their shoes. It is one of those coordination things that you can only learn by doing it over and over, and velcro wasn't helping the situation.

So my oldest picked out a pair of sparkly pink and white sneakers and we began to work on it. We sang little rhyming songs and practiced faithfully. Slowly she began to catch on. I started to notice her develop a new love of string. She tied knots around chair legs, in her doll ribbons, and sometimes even with her shoelaces. Hooray! The first half of the process was mastered (criss-cross poke through and pull) but the bow had her stumped. Every time she tried to figure out which loop to pull through, her knot would fall apart and so would she. Poor thing.

Just a few days ago, I remembered that a grade school friend used to tie her shoes differently. Instead of the standard bow, she tied "bunny ears" by making two loops and then knotting them together. I showed the bunny ears to my sweet daughter only once, then she beamed with excitement when she tied her shoes all by herself. Now she is happily tying bows for anyone who will watch.

My son? Well, he's not so interested in the process. (Plus, he was given a pair of fun velcro sneakers from a favorite cousin) We'll give him some more time. I'm sure that by the time he gets into Boy Scouts he will be teaching me a thing or two about knots.