Uncommonly Educated: Tied up in Knots

W has no patience with tasks requiring dexterity and co-ordination and I'm a massive wimp.

These two forces combined; we'd managed to get to size 3 shoes without ever having to teach W to tie laces.

I spent my days searching high and low for shoes relying solely on velcro. Every time we'd go past a shoe shop I'd just 'nip in' for a scan of the shelves, concluding it's surprisingly difficult to find older boy shoes without laces.

I wish that meant there was a gaping hole in the market and I was just days from Dragon's Den and a multi-million pound velcro shoe franchise. Sadly not. I have to conclude that most 8 year olds have parents who have patiently, calmly, with boundless love, taught them to tie a bow.

When I found a style which was both comfortable and lace-free I bought it in 3 sizes - a testament to my pessimism that we'd ever conquer this particular life skill - but we reached the end of the road and the end of my stock of velcro shoes. His trainers looked like - well, a boy's trainers really. Battered, muddy, with bits hanging off and the toe scraped to bits.It was time to face our lacey demons.

I spent 30 minutes watching YouTube instructional videos and cheering myself up reading the disproportionately angry/excited/rude comments left by other viewers. With a shoe on my lap and a bit of practice I could confidently demonstrate 3 possible methods and, feeling optimistic, we embarked on a lace tying lesson.

K can already do the bunny-round-the-tree method so he decided to try the speedy finger-spin method. Mastered, very proud and tying laces in 2 seconds. Tick.

W tried the 2 stage method, Fail.
A brief attempt at the finger-spin method ended in the same fashion - with a shoe being lobbed in frustration.
Deep breaths, one method to go.

Back to tradition, we made a loop-tree and sent the bunny round the tree. At this point, it kept going wrong and I was ready to throw a shoe again. Luckily, we'd watched the fantastic BBC documentary The Hunt this week, and watched the episode where Arctic foxes chase rabbits (actually it was hares I think, but I don't want to split them). So we added a fox into our method.

The end of the lace is the bunny. The fox is half way down the lace. The bunny runs round the tree, chased by the fox. But - hello! The fox is distracted by a baby bunny sat on your thumb nail! (The one holding the tree trunk.) The fox runs to the baby (*covers eyes*).... but - oh - what's this? The baby bunny is a plucky little thing and grabs the fox - running away with his prize. Phew. Two safe bunnies and one passable bow. Sorry, fox. You did not get kidnapped by a baby bunny in vain.