Answers From The Teacher

My daughter’s going off to kindergarten in September, and she still can’t tie her shoes. We’ve tried teaching her, but she gets so frustrated that we give up before she learns the steps to follow. Do you have any hints? Is she expected to be able to tie her shoes on her own?

Chances are your daughter’s teacher isn’t expecting her to tie her shoes on her own, but it sure would be helpful if she could. Generally, children are still learning the shoe-tying skill during kindergarten and are mastering it by the beginning of first grade. Some teachers may include shoe tying in their kindergarten program while others may not.

If your daughter is too frustrated to concentrate, forget about it for a few months and try again when she seems ready. Buy Velcro sneakers for school this fall and forget about tying shoes for a while.

When your daughter seems ready, sit down together and hold a shoe in your lap. Show her how to proceed through the steps and allow her to try it on her own. Whatever you do, don’t try to teach her to tie her shoes as you are heading out the door. It will be too frustrating for the both of you.

Tying one’s own shoelaces is a big step toward independence. Remind her that she will be able to perform the task more quickly and easily as time goes on. Praise her on her efforts as she practices and soon she’ll be able to tie her shoes all by herself.

My fifth-grade son has been asked to be a peer mediator at school next year. He will receive some training and be a member of the peer mediation team. Will this be a worthwhile experience for him?

Being a peer mediator will allow your son to participate in his school in a unique way. The guidance counselor will probably train him and several other students before they participate in peer mediation hearings to discuss student behavior and help solve other school problems. Peer mediation is often used as a way of handling minor discipline problems that may be oc-curring in school. Your son’s role as a peer mediation team member will be to discuss the problem at hand and offer possible solutions. I believe it will be a worthwhile experience because he will be able to make a meaningful contribution to his own school environment.

Chances are your son was chosen to participate because he is well re-spected by his teachers and his peers. You will probably need to sign a permission slip in order for him to participate. Find out ahead of time when the peer mediation meetings will take place. If he misses some class time, he will most likely need to make up the as-signments that he missed, but the ex-perience will be well worth it. He will be putting forth some extra effort in order to participate, and he should be commended for it.

Send questions to: Answers from the Teacher, P.O. Box 54, South Egremont, MA 01258. Questions may also be e-mailed to answersfromtheteacher@adelphia.net.