I Can Tie My Shoes!

Today Riley and I discussed the issue of him learning to tie his own shoes. He has very weak fine motor skills (we've known this since he was tested for Early Intervention at 16 months) which means his handwriting is sloppy no matter how hard he tries and things like tying his shoes is frustrating for him. While we were sitting at the Acura dealer waiting for an oil change, he and I talked about how he needs to learn to tie his own shoes. I told him we were going to start today and that once school is over for the summer, I wouldn't be helping him tie his shoes anymore. Riley isn't motivated by candy or food like Kendall, but rather by toys. We made a deal that when he learns to tie his own shoes, we'd go get more LEGOS - Have I mentioned my kid is a LEGO Maniac? That sealed the deal for him. On the way home from getting the oil change, we stopped at a Lifeway Christian bookstore to pick up the free "What's In the Bible" video I won off of a blog. While we were there, he found these cool Veggie Tales "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" finger puppets. He decided that they would be better motivation than the LEGOS. Once we got home, I taught him this cute little poem I found on the internet and boy if he didn't learn how to tie his shoes in 10 minutes! It's not perfect every time, but he's probably at about a 75% right now!

Here's the poem:

Build a tee pee

Come inside

Close it tight so we can hide

Over the mountain

Around we go

Here's my arrow

Here's my bow

Here's a video of Riley actually tying his shoe! I'm so proud of him. I know he's a late bloomer with this skill, but keep in mind that he's had some challenges. I'm so proud of him for picking it up so easily and quickly! His face when he first did it was priceless! He was beaming as much as I was!