I’ve written about and shared some milestones on my kids before, but as my kids grow older, the milestones are different. They can happen more quickly and are not as frequently or carefully documented as in their very exciting first year of babyhood. There’s pictures of smiling, rolling over, sitting up, walking and more in my kids’ scrapbooks.
One milestone we celebrated over the weekend was getting my six year old her first pair of tie shoes! This is a big deal – an upgrade over Velcro shoes and a great shoe to wear for gym class. Shoe shopping alone was a lot of fun with her. Some shoes were crazy – we found shoes that have a spin-disc, so you can twirl like a ballerina. Nice gimmick, but not practical for running! After trying on multiple pairs, she ended up with ones that look kind of like mine! Aren’t we cute?!
When I wanted to look at women’s shoes, she was very helpful, pointing out the be-jeweled 4 inch heels (perfect for everyday), and some beaded sandals. It was a fun outing for us, one that I hope will continue to go as smoothly as this past weekend. And when we got home, we found that these beauties came in mail for her. So cute!
Immediately my daughter wanted to learn how to tie her new shoes. Knowing that there were “new” ways since I had learned many years ago, I turned to this You Tube video:
Sounds awesome, right? I could NOT figure our this so called “Magic Finger” method. It looks really cool and there are a lot of related videos, but it just wasn’t working.
I resorted to my “old” way, and she started to get the hang of it. She was getting frustrated, so I encouraged her to keep trying and left the room for a bit. In just a few minutes, I heard her yell, “Mommy, I did it!!” It was awesome! She kept on practicing throughout the day, so determined to do it right. Dad and I pointed out a few tricks for her to try, and some have helped. We’re really proud of her for learning how to tie her shoes so quickly, and we hope all goes well at school with the multiple snow boot – shoe changes each day!
A few lessons
When my daughter has a goal in mind, watch out! She is one determined and sometimes stubborn little girl, who can get frustrated if she doesn’t succeed after a few attempts. It really helped when I walked away and didn’t hover the entire time. It seems to help to give guidance and then give her space to learn things on her own. This applies not only to shoe-tying, but so many other areas of her life!
Cheers to my big 6 year old girl!
Related Post
I talk about similar parenting lessons in Parenting is like a Family Bike-Ride
go mama o. 