Help: My dd is struggling!

[Charmaine]

My dd has just started in Kindergarten. Her teacher want all the kids to become independant (of course!) and wants them to zipper their coats up by themselves if possible. She struggles with this. It takes her longer and sometimes she finds it really hard to start the zipper and get it going (she does have a ring (zipper pull) on it to help her) but it takes her much longer than the other kids. She is getting frustrated. I don't want her to have someone help her all the time because that singles her out. I want it to be as easy as possible for her.

Any suggestions please? I would love to have this resolved for her for by Monday morning!

Email me
Charmaine
cwinter@gov.nl.ca

[admin]

Richards winter jackets have zippers and snaps - if he's too rushed the snaps are faster for him as the zippers give him more trouble.

[m&mmom]

I would try getting a coat with velcro closures instead of zippers. I know zippers must still be learned, however she may have an easier time in school.

Cindy

[admin]

I would slip a twist tie through the end of the zipper thingy to make it easier for your daughter to grab ahold of. If I have enough twist ties on hand, I sometimes even put 2-3 side by side and then loop them through the tiny hole on the zipper pull up thingy so they have as much to grab ahold of as possible.

[eolson]

Gosh, I remember not being able to do zippers. Not all zippers are created equal. Some have wider mouths.

I would use my good hand to hold the zipper tab. The other side needed to be really stiff fabric so I could just grab the fabric in my claw hand and poke the pin in.

If the pin/insert thing side of the coat bends and escapes when your daughter tries to start it in, how about reinforcing the fabric? My mom did that by putting a lot of extra stitches into the fabric with the sewing machine. I guess you could add some patch material to the back as well.


I'm good at tackling problems, but I think the others have good ideas on getting around the problem!

I haven't really thought about it in 20 years. (Did you know it took 40 for the zipper to become accepted?*)

* Friedel, Robert. 1996. Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty.

[kimhue]

My daughter had a hard time on zippers but now she don`t. I found that the best way for her to learn is to have another child work with her. And put something big enough on the pully thing so she can grab it.