Trick to Keep Shoelaces Tied

Jeff has really gotten into running lately. Yesterday he showed me this great way that runners tie their shoelaces, so that they won't come untied. Having your shoes come untied in a race could be bad. Really bad.

Now, I'm not a runner. However, I have had the joy of tying, and retying, and tying again, and again, in the same day a certain little person's shoelaces. I don't know if it is the age, or the pair of shoes, but Charlotte's shoes are always coming untied. I tried Jeff's new shoelace knot on her today, and WOWOWOWOW. They have not come untied even once.

Do you have kids that need their shoes tied for them, all day long? Well let me tell you the way to solve that problem.

1. Begin tying the shoe laces as you normally would. The half knot part is done the same as always.

2. Now we are going to tie shoelaces using the bunny ear method. Create two loops, one with each lace. Tuck one loop under like you normally would. Do not pull it tight yet.

3. Next (here is the great trick), loop the same "ear" through the same hole in the same direction. It looks a little bulky, but trust me.

4. Now pull the ears tight. You now have a bow that will stay tied tight.

Give it a try, and let me know what you think.
(And the best part is that they are easier to get off than a shoe tied with a double knot. You still can pull on the laces to get the knot undone. You just have to pull a little harder than normal). I'll never tie a pair of shoes the same again.

Ken and Barbie

My girls have never wanted or needed a Ken doll to go along with their Barbie dolls. I mean, when all you have is sisters, I think it is easy to forget that boys even exist. (Sorry Jeff). One day after Christmas, they were reenacting Cinderella and realized that at the very end they did need a boy doll. Luckily Charlotte got a Woody doll for Christmas.

It will be interesting to see if all my girls marry short men.

Teacher Appreciation

Yesterday I volunteered in Savannah's classroom to help with an art project. I was in charge of another project a couple of months ago. I planned a project including paint, thinking that it would be a bit messy, but a lot of fun. It was more like a lot messy and a little bit of fun. And the end results were okay. Not bad, but not amazing pieces of art.

This month I decided to do something a little less messy. I figured that cutting construction paper would be easy, (clean), and fun. I am amazed at the broad range of cutting skills that the first graders had. We were cutting out hearts. I showed them all how to fold their paper, draw a half heart on the center fold, and then cut it out. Well, we had a few kids who had been cutting hearts for years, and others who had never cut a heart out in their life.

This little project only took a minute or two for the faster cutters, and over a half an hour for some of the kids with less practice. Wow. I had not planned on something to keep those fast little kids busy while the other kids were still working on their project. Thank goodness their sweet teacher jumped in and got some more colored paper, so that the kids could make more to take home with them. Whhhheeew! I was a bit frazzled at the end of the project. And I spent less than an hour with these kids.

Teachers happily deal with this all day long.

To all those wonderful people who made the choice to become teachers, and thrive in that environment, my hat goes off to you.