The Chronicles of Biscuit - "You should thank God!"

In March, Biscuit came home from Kindergarten and said, "Mom, I'm the only one in my class who doesn't know how to tie shoes!". Well, out of 21 students, I was really shocked! Then I began to fill bad that he didn't know how because we hadn't taught him. We practiced from time to time, but not very often at all. I had never really thought about it before.

Because our other three children learned from each other or from a friend, I began having one of the siblings try to teach Biscuit how to tie. It immediately seemed more difficult teaching him because of his lack of caring in learning to accomplish this task, but also because he was left handed and none of us are. Though he practiced from time to time,it just wasn't working. I asked the teacher about it at the next parent-teacher conferences. She assured me that out of the 21 students, not even half of them knew how to tie their shoes! But, I still felt bad that we had neglected it. I think it's because he's the youngest of our four. It's easy to keep that one "young" and forget what they are capable of!

In July, we told Tyler he had to know how to tie before he began 1st grade in mid-August. He tried a while, but still didn't seem interested. But then I had an idea! We've never bribed our children to do something, but we've often-times taken things away as a means of discipline. (Ex. Potty training our third child (son) wasn't going so well until I told him he couldn't watch another movie until he learned- then he was totally potty trained in three days!) So, I told Tyler he couldn't have any gum until he learned to tie his shoes. He really liked gum, so I thought that would do the trick. It didn't. He didn't have gum for three weeks!

On the way to Nashville last week, we came up with another plan. He and his older brother, Zachary, were going to be sitting in the second row of the mini van for 13 hours, so it was a perfect time to practice shoe tying. After a few minutes of that not going so well, we thought of another "take away" as a form of discipline. Being an avid "ball" player, we told Biscuit there would be no more ball playing of any kind until he learned to tie his shoes. Well, you should have seen Biscuit then! It was like he was in a race...so excited and interested to learn to tie his shoes!

It still took a while, but at least now he had the interest to learn how. It took lots of patience (from Zachary, especially) and lots of practice (from Biscuit, Zachary, and us) but Biscuit learned to tie his shoes on that trip to Nashville...then fine-tuned the task on the 13 hour trip back home. Joe and I helped a little bit, but I'll give credit to Zachary for the majority of the help.

While we were on our way home from Nashville, we stopped to eat. Biscuit was so excited about learning to tie his shoe, he was doing it all of the time...even while waiting for our food. I said, "Biscuit, I sure am proud of you! Thank you for learning to tie your shoes." He said, "Mom, you should thank God!" How sweet!

Yes, Biscuit, I do thank God....for you and for you learning to tie your shoes.