The Wonder of Heelys

Yesterday Gabe mastered skating on Heelys and tying his shoes! He and Dad bought these out of a close out bin over a year ago at Big 5. It took a little girl, Bella, at Lydia's ballet studio to inspire Gabe to dig them out of the closet. It was time to skate! This was also a great motivator in tying shoes. Mom only stooped to teach him how to tie them himself. It is a phenomena of our present culture that kids don't have to learn to tie shoes. The only mandatory occasion to tie has been soccer shoe laces, and those occasions did not give way to teachable moments! Anytime we are going out the door, we are in 5 minutes late, adrenaline pumping mode in our household. So we finally had the occasion and the motivator for shoe tying. Learning to tie was as slick as learning to glide! Lydia learned to tie too, because big brother turns impossibilities into possibilities in a heartbeat. I knew she would tie her shoes if Gabe could, and I was right.