Monday, May 4, 2009

Cardboard Shoes


I recently read on maya made about a project she did
with her daughter to practise tying knots. One of the
commenters mentioned a variation of this for lacing
shoes. My eldest is into tying knots, too, so I thought
she might like something to fiddle with along the same lines.

Anything the eldest has (pink shoe) must of course
be replicated for the middle child (blue shoe) so here
they are. When I proudly presented it to them, the
eldest said, "but I can tie knots, mom. Remember? I
alway tie my belt around my dressing gown by myself."
Drats.
Note to self: 
pay more attention to what the kids are actually doing when I'm not looking.
The youngest stared at it with interest, then politely put it
beside her on the bed and continued doing whatever she
was originally doing. Oh well. Not all handmade toys are
received with equal relish, I guess. I thought I would post
on it anyway because someone else's kids might get more
out of it than mine did. Besides, it gets a bit old to only
read, ".. and my child LOVED it and plays with it daily to
the point that she refuses to watch TV when invited to!"

I'm leaving the shoes lying around the house in the hope
that the girls might express interest in them later. I've
shown how it can be used to teach two skills - the blue
shoe has a knot or a bow between each pair of holes
and the pink shoe is laced the way a real shoe might be,
with a bow.

Incidentally, Emily is nowhere near being able to tie
a bow, so perhaps her pink shoe might serve
some function in the future after all!


4 comments:

  1. These are cute! Maybe your girls will like them in a few days... My kids certainly don't like all the stuff I make them - sometimes even when they request it specifically!

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  2. Very cute!

    Incidentally, H was having trouble learning to tie using the whole "rabbit goes around the loop and into the hole" thing. But she knew how to tie the plain knot that you start with. So then we taught her, after that first knot, to make two loops (one with each lace) and then tie those into a knot the same way as the first one. Did that make any sense? Anyway, she was able to do that one with just a little practice.

    At some point, we'll work on the slightly-faster "rabbit 'round the tree" method, 'though she might just ease into it on her own too.

    Getting too long -- should send you an email instead! : )

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really loved this post, I can relate to being elated with something I made my kids, only to have them prefer some dollar store junk. I might try the idea, despite the probable similar results. But I do have hopes they will someday learn to tie their shoes. and that someday I can create something they will prefer to TV.

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