Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School 1st/2nd Grade 2010-2011

LOL! Last summer I made sure to teach DS how to tie his shoes before he started school, and he learned how. But, during the school year he ended up slipping on his shoes without untying them and so, over the course of the year, he has forgotten. I think I've told him 10 times this summer that he's going to have to relearn how to tie his shoes before school starts, but we haven't quite gotten to that yet! So, add us to the list of needing to buckle/tie down!

I was actually pleasantly surprised this past year when dd's kindergarten teacher sent home a rotating kit with practice puzzles for tying your shoes. You got to keep the kit for one night - brought it back the next day - and had an opportunity to tie for the teacher. If you succeeded, you got your name on the wall of fame.

This approach might be stressful for some kids (it was stressful for this mom) - but my dd found it very motivating. She really wanted her name on that wall so she learned how to do it in one night.

If the teacher hadn't sent the kit home, I probably wouldn't have even thought about tying shoes (we are a velcro/slip-on kind of family).

School starts here the latter part of August. GD6 had a rough year in full day Kindergarten last year largely due to boredom but also because of her very high intensity/anxiety. She will be in 1st grade this fall but at least she is to be in a GT classroom all day - not sure if the entire class will be GT or not (or what LOG). They are also supposed to be ability grouped for at least reading and math. I hope there are some other kids that are close to her level of reading (4th grade). We won't meet the teacher until the Thurs or Fri before classes start but we are hoping for a better teacher fit this year. She also has an IEP & BIP (due to "general anxiety disorder" and will have a 30 minute "social skills" class 1st thing each morning & a Sp. Ed teacher assigned to be called first if she has anxiety or behavior issues.

So we are hoping this year will be better but only time will tell. DD is willing to give it a chance before pursuing other school options.

GD has not learned to tie her shoes yet but we haven't really worked on it either. She only has one pair of tennis shoes with laces but I guess we should work on that too!

Our kindergarten asked that kids wear lace-up shoes so that they got practice tying shoes.

DS6 is such a highly emotional perfectionist that shoe-tying was a source of many tears this past spring. I held firm. He needed to *try* to tie them every day (assuming we weren't in a hurry). If he made a good-faith effort and still couldn't do it, then I would help him.

He's quite good at it now. The biggest problem for him was that he likes to have his shoes tied very tightly, and a new shoe-tyer simply can't get the laces that tight. There were times when he would tie them just fine but would be unhappy with how loose they were, and then I would redo them for him, showing him how I got them to be tight. That was just fine with me: he got the practice that he needed and that's all I cared about. I think the fact that I was willing to redo them for him also helped him to get past his perfectionism about it. He wasn't going to be stuck with his imperfect tying if he didn't want to be.

I almost never tie his shoes for him anymore. He does prefer flip-flops, but he ties his own shoes when tennies are needed.

Hi! - I Hope it isn't too late for me to join in. My DS6 will be starting first grade in September. We were living in Sydney AU for two years, and just moved back to the US. It is a new school for DS, and big changes. We met with the school a few weeks ago and they mentioned a pullout for reading, but nothing else. I don't want to be "that parent" but after reading so many stories on this board I realize that we do have to advocate when necessary. We're more interested in finding a teacher that "gets" DS and will work with him. DS isn't very motivated academically unless it is something that he is interested in, so we haven't really felt the need to advocate. Maybe that will change this year.

JJsmom: Tx! By the way, got the letter TODAY that DS8 got into the school we wanted. Woo-hoo!

Kriston: Gotta love those perfectionists, huh? At least your DS would let you tie them for him. Mine wouldn't have it. He had tremendous fits anytime I'd try to help him. It drives me crazy sometimes.

GM5: Keeping my fingers crossed for you that the year goes well.

Venture: Welcome!

M22B: I got really good at reasoning him out of his fits. Also, I would never help unless he asked me to OR unless we had somewhere to be and we were late. Multiple warnings helped him to let go and allow me to do it in the latter case.

If he had really wanted to tie his shoes, he'd have probably fought me harder. Since I was requiring that he try to do it whether he wanted to or not, he wasn't as invested. It was sort of a judo move, I think. I used his own natural tendencies against him.

Congrats on getting DS8 into the school you wanted! That's great!

Hi All,

Is anyone else seeing a big leap in abilities and interests right now? My ds is 6-1/2 and while he's made huge leaps since he started K last fall (and Year 1 in January), what I've seen in the past two months is scary! I know that right around 7 most children enter a new phase in their development, so I'm wondering if that's what's going on here. We homeschool and didn't start doing so until last fall, so I'm not sure if what we're seeing has been sparked by the richer environment or if this is normal for these children. I'm really just curious if anyone else is experiencing this right now, too.

Mom2MrQ - If you had asked me this six months ago I'd totally agree, but lately it's the exact opposite. My DS is 6.5 (Dec baby) and in the last three months his enthusiasm has dropped. Although I tend to think it has more to do with our move back to the US (We lived abroad for two years), and the changes that go along with coming back home. He used to love to play guitar, and now he fights not to play or practice. He was enrolled in a pottery class in AU that he loved so we enrolled him in a pottery camp here. I had to agree to stay with him the entire first class just to get him to agree to go. He had confidence and perfection issues beforehand, but it has taken a real nosedive since we returned. We're hoping we can improve the situation before starting school in September, we're considering seeing a counselor even for a few sessions to assist with the transition.