Who says you can't learn things from movies?

[charliesmum]

So yesterday I was watching this movie called Raising Helen starring Kate Hudson. Not a bad movie, one of those redemption type films I usually enjoy, and Joan Cusack was in it and she is always good. Anyway, Helen, single career-minded party girl, gets custody of her sister's 3 children when the sister and her husband die, and blah blah blah you can pretty much see where this is going. One of the kids is five or six years old, and the mother had been teaching her to tie shoes right before she died, and this becomes a thread throughout the story. In the end the little girl can tie her own shoes, and they show this as the happy music swells.

Now Charlie has always had, up until this year, shoes with velcro on them, so tying his shoes was never an issue. I figured though, at 8 years old he ought to know, so this year he has trainers with laces. I have not been successful in teaching him how to tie shoes, I don't know if it is because I am left handed and therefore do it differently then he does, or if I'm just not good at explaining it. Pretty sure it's the latter.

Anyway, in the movie, they tied the shoe in a way that was different than the way I was attempting to show Charlie, and it looked a bit easier. Fortunately since the shoe tying was symbolic and all, I got a pretty good idea of how it went, and this morning I showed it to Charlie.*

He did it! He tied his own shoe. He was so very proud and told me "I will remember."

So thanks, Kate Hudson, for teaching my son how to tie shoes.



*Make two bunny ears, one bunny ear goes around the other, then through the 'bunny hole' then pull tight. In case you're wondering.

Comments

[lietya.livejournal.com]

That is STILL how I tie my shoes. So, if it makes you feel better, I'm 28 and still can't do it the "real" way. :)

(" Fortunately since the shoe tying was symbolic and all, I got a pretty good idea of how it went..." this amuses me mightily, for some reason.)

[dindin.livejournal.com]

I can...but there's very little reason why I would.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

This makes me feel better!

[dindin.livejournal.com]

The only time I tie my knots that way is if I'm trying to make something like a sash look pretty. Otherwise it's just too fussy for my fingers. :)

[bookgrrrl.livejournal.com]

I also tie my shoes using "the bunny method"

[lietya.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's not just me (or Charlie). It's so much easier that way....

[nam-jai.livejournal.com]

Count me in as another person who never learned how to tie my shoes the "real" way. Hey, if the bunny method works, and my shoes stay tied, then way bother to change?

And we're in good company with Charlie!

[jessii-6.livejournal.com]

count me in, as well

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Yep, we are! That was my attitude too - it works, so what's wrong?

[jandyle.livejournal.com]

You know what is really funny? I can't do it the "bunny way". I mean, I can, sort of, but it always comes out funny and all loose or tangled up, and more often than not it falls apart. Clearly I am doing it wrong. When I was a kid I was so jealous of all my friends that could tie their shoes the "bunny way", when I could only do the old boring "normal" way.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry! I guess there's always somebody that it doesn't work for, no matter *what* way you pick. :) On the bright side, you probably don't get weird looks now for tying your shoes like a four-year-old.

[jandyle.livejournal.com]

No, I just get weird looks for other things. ;)

[chavvah.livejournal.com]

I am left-handed and I had the devil of a time learning to tie my own shoes. I can't imagine attempting to teach another human being.

[sing1118.livejournal.com]

Yay!

You know, I had trouble learning how to tie my shoes from my dad because I tie left-handed and he ties right-handed, so maybe that was part of the problem. (Also, I learned and then forgot and had to relearn because I'm s-m-r-t like that.)

[atlantel.livejournal.com]

I don't even remember how nor when I learnt how to tie my shoes :)But I'm pretty it's not the bunny way (at least how I imagine it). Though I think I gave shoes with velcro around 5 because I really disliked that :)

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

I had to learn to tie my shoes a different way from the way that my mother originally taught me, too. A kid on the playground taught me. The different is that my mother insists to this day that I tie my shoes the "wrong" way and has attempted several times, the last attempt occurring while I was in college, to teach me to tie them the "right" way. Recently I asked λ to show me how to tie shoes the "right" way, because I was curious, and it turned out - surprise! - there is more than one "right" way and my way is one of them.

I think my point is, thank you for handling this so nicely with Charlie - letting him use Velcro until he could learn and then letting him tie them in a way he could understand. A grown up autistic-spectrum kid appreciates it.

[zambonigirl.livejournal.com]

I never learned the bunny ears approach until I was much older. I've always done it the hangman's noose way.

Anyway, I was just thinking that it's surprising that you had trouble, being left-handed, since Charlie would be exactly mimicing what you're doing if you were facing him while showing him, but...eh. Tying shoes is tough, and go Charlie for getting it!

In other news, velcro is back in large numbers when it comes to shoes this season. I wonder if it will go the way of matte lipstick?

[cabenson.livejournal.com]

That is effing A! Who says Hollywood can't teach us anything except to be lazy, spend money we don't have and be whorish. Not that I mind being those things...

[sierram.livejournal.com]

Tis how I learned to tie mine,about 640864068 years ago!