Learning to tie my shoes is one of my earliest memories. The pressure was intense! I was told I had to be able to tie my shoes to go to kindergarten. And so I remember spending the days leading up to kindergarten desperately trying to tie my shoes. I made my deadline, but it was brutal.
Because I remembered that pressure, I never gave Jack a deadline. I just bought him slip on shoes for kindergarten. But when I mentioned buying new school shoes for first grade, Jack told me the PE teacher asked them to only get tie shoes. I asked him if he knew what that meant, and he replied that he needed to learn to tie his shoes.
One of the gifts that Buddy, our Elf on the Shelf, brought Jack last Christmas was an elf shoe. So, yesterday we got it out and within a minute or two Jack was tying. No fuss. No tears. No pressure to get it done to go to kindergarten. Just a little boy who when I expressed how proud of him I was replied, "I'm proud of myself, Mom."
I'm proud of you, too, Jack! Nicely done.
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