Making critter calls and learning knots with a four year old

[Okanagan]

While in PA, at Eastern Mountain Sports I bought my four year old grandson some climbing accessory cord in the color of his choice, for us to practice knot tying, plus a real mountain climber carabineer to clip to the cord, toys and his play school pack.

He is over focused on ropes and rescue right now so I added fuel.  We made a climbing harness from webbing and caribiners I brought along, and he "rappelled" down the stairs in his house to rescue fallen toys.  We also tied up a lariat with a weight and stiffness of rope to fit him, and practiced roping trike handles and fence posts.  He caught on to that better than I expected. The rope is locked in a high cupboard and can only be accessed and used with one of his parents present.

On knots, he has mastered the overhand knot and the Lark’s head loop.  When starting to teach him a Granny knot (one overhand on another), he invariably tied a square knot.  That is curious, and backward to natural human tendency for nearly everyone (and much better).  For most people, a granny knot is the result of natural hand motion and the much stronger square knot takes thought and practice, though they are nearly identical to tie.  His mother asked me to teach him knots to work on his small motor coordination.  He's experimenting with all kinds of knots of course.  I cut the knot practice piece back to two feet long for safety reasons.

We also made a couple of predator and deer calls by whittling out two slats with a flat rubber band stretched across a gap between them.  He is blowing on them often but his mother has endured the noise and as of yesterday, had not confiscated them yet.  As soon as we made the calls we went to a nearby park woods, found a real bobcat track and he tried to call the animal of his choice, which was a mountain lion.  Why not.

[slagmaker]

Now that sounds like a way to spend a day.

Being an Eagle Scout I had to learn a great many knots and some of my instructors didnt like working with me cause I am left handed and they said I tied them backwards, correctly but backwards. Learing knots is fun and usefull in later life. Had a friend of mine helping me skid logs and he would tie a knot and say my knot will never come out. I had to show him the yep that knot will never come out and you will have to cut the rope to get it out. He laughed and said yep probably. then at the end of the day his rope was several feet shorter than mine. He finally conceded that proper knots are the way to go.

Your right about the square/granny cross over. Seen many a  person not able to grasp the simple concept of right over left left over right

Handiest knots I can think of learning, not necessarliy in this order.
Bowline "one handed not that rabit through the hole under the log thing"
two half hitch
taught line hitch
sheepshank
clove hitch
timber hitch

[Okanagan]

slagmaker, what a great reply on this topic.  I got a little instantly mad about the comment from your old instructors that you were tying knots backwards.  BS!  If the knot comes out right, there is no backwards nor forwards nor anything else.   That kind of mindless criticism is a classic way for a teacher or any adult to damage a young person and mess up his or her innate pleasure in learning.  Sounds like you had better sense than the instructor, fortunately.

I agree that the bowline was hard to learn but once learned, I now know how to tie it four different ways, depending on whether I am tying to something with the rope coming my way, or away from me, and including the one handed climbing rescue bowline around my own body.  That ties a safe line around yourself with one hand without letting go of whatever you are holding onto with the other.  I never learned the squirrel around the tree stuff and always thought it confused me more than helped. 

As a boy, a few older men would sit by a stove or campfire at night and show each other and me knots while they told stories.  Oil drillers with old time cable rigs, working cowboys, truckers, sailors, Sioux and Flathead, salt water fishermen:  each had some specialty knots and I learned a few more from climbers as an adult.  Once you get some basic knot concepts, you can modify them, such as double looping the ends of a sheepshank in places where you want that loose tension-dependent knot to be more secure.  I use sliding prussic knots for tarp/tent guy lines, and in almost any knot I plan to untie, I finish it with a slip release instead of putting the end through.  That way you can walk around a tarp for example and pull the tail on each knot without even stopping and the tarp is down and free at the end of your circle.  Grandkids love that.  I don't use such slip release knots where life or safety depends on them.

[slagmaker]

OH not all of them disliked my knot tying,  in fact a many of them liked it after working together. Some of them thought it was like working in a mirror and I was able to teach others fairley easily.

Several years ago I was at a biker party and was helping to set up the stage. I was tying off guy lines and the owner of the stage came over and asked me how I was able to tie everthing off so quick. I showed him a couple knots and next thing I knew I was teaching his crew how to tie off guy lines and shorten extra lengths of line without cutting. Kind of funny how and eagle scout was teaching a bunch of bikers/stage hands to tie some simple knots to help them in there job