How the heck do you teach your kiddo to tie their shoes?

[bnhmama]

Help.

Ds is 5.5 and we just tried a bit. It became clear in the first minute that doing the whole thing wasn't going to happen. When we started it was obvious that his little hands were struggling. His loop was teensy and his hand placement was all over the place. So I backtracked and decided to master one step at a time. Tonight we ended up working for a bit on simply crossing the shoe laces and tucking the string through the triangle to create the first tie. He only had patience for about 5 minutes though and has really only mastered crossing the laces. So we'll still be working on it again tomorrow.



Any tips?

Can't I just put him in velcro until he goes to college? :

[eclipse]

I dunno. My 7 year old can't do it yet either.

[bnhmama]

Okay, phew. I guess the better question should have been, when could your kids do it? I'm not going to pressure my ds but with him going off to school, I want to help him learn as soon as he's ready b/c I want to eventually put him in shoes that have laces. Just watching and knowing him, though, seems like he's just not coordinated/focused enough yet.

[littlest birds]

One of our 8yos can and the other can't. I have been so into nonlaced shoes for so long it was never necessary. I had to make a concerted effort to do tie shoes first. It turned out that ds invented his own way to tie them. Who knows when he managed it. He was able to copy me (I showed him side-by-side by the way so he could do it at the same time) but he showed me he had another way he liked the next day. He loves his sneakers and his lace-up boots. Dd is a shoe-tying dropout because she prefers her Crocs.

I love easy-on shoes for kids and me. I don't wear shoes that tie at all.

I'll make another effort with dd at some point. It's easy, she just has to practice to be good at it... though now that I think about it the girls are always tying toy animals together so maybe she already can.

They will both be 9yo in November and it's not that big of a deal even now.

[eclipse]

I remember it being a big going to kindy skill when I was a kid, but with all the other shoe options they have these days, I can't see stressing over it. I assume he'll learn at some point.

[Rose-Roget]

My ds is still WAY too young, but I was just pondering this today. They say on his preschool form that if the child cannot tie his/her own shoes, please send them in no-tie shoes. I understand this, but at the same time, if the kids never get to wear tie shoe, then how do they have the exposure and motivation to tie them??!

I remember learning when I was in kindergarten. My mom complained that I was behind at that time, but she's an over-acheiver. You could try teaching the technique of making 2 loops and tying them together, rather than the regular way. That's the way I was first taught...I don't know when I picked up the "regular" way.

Anyway, I'm sorry I don't have any real insights; I just had to speak up because it was something I'd already been thinking about. Best of luck - hopefully, other people are more helpful than I am.

[limabean]

I would just wait until he's more interested and then teach him as slowly as he needs, like you're doing (I like the one-step-at-a-time approach!). I student-taught kindergarten, and most of the kids (5 to 6 year olds) couldn't tie their shoes -- we tied shoes for them all the time, no big deal at all.

[hellyaellen]

one thing that helped when i was teaching dd was to sit down behind her so she could see what my hands did step by step from the right perspective as opposed to doing it sitting in front of her

[applejuice]

I do not know. I did not learn until I was nine years old. However in a few years I was the macrame' champion of my community, so I had the talent all of the time, just latently.

My own children learned easily enough; I used a method that I saw on Sesame Street in which the child makes a square knot with the laces and then makes two loops and makes a square knot with those. It worked for me four times.

[Jes'sBeth]

I learned early in Kindergarten. As a substitute teacher I've taught kids in gr 3 who can't tie thier shoes and it drives me nuts. If they can't tie them, don't buy your gr 3 aged kid lace ups! (I know, it's harsh but I have better things to do than to tie a student's shoes for them 4 times a day! Yes this is one of the reason's I don't teach kindergarten! Though by the end of the day I did have one of the kids ALMOST able to do it himself.)

I think a student should be able to tie thier own shoes by the end of grade 2 at least and really I think (given enough time) that a child should be learning to tie in kindergarten/ grade 1.

hook and loop really is a double edged sword. It makes kids able to put their own shoes on early but they don't have to learn to tie. My 3 yr old is desperate to learn to tie her own shoes. She's so cute! (and a long way off able to do it still...

[mata]

you don't!

my dd is 8 and still has a ways to go. she lives in flip flops-no surprise!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yBP_eacB98

I haven't even thought about it with my youngest (4)-I'm bad! But somehow I don't see her wearing tennis shoes very often.

[AAK]

Anna & Kayla learned at 5.5 yrs. We made the effort to teach them as we think they should know how. If they were really struggling, we would have waited a while and then tried again. It is slow go at first though. Even when they finally get it, it takes them forever, so you make sure they get their shoes on well before you actually have to leave.

As far as methods, we taught Anna the standard way. Kayla was getting the standard way but wanted to see the bunny ears way too. Turns out that the bunny ears was sooooo much easier for her to master. I would've shown Anna that too, but she wasn't up for anything that wasn't what I did normally. After Kayla learned so quickly, she was a bit upset because she remembered that it took a while for her (she thinks she needs to be the best all the time!).

For those who don't know, the bunny ears is this: First do the basic thing where you cross laces and push one through the triangle. Second, make two "bunny ears" out of the strings and hold them snug. Third, wrap one ear around the other and poke it through the hole. Pull tight and done!

I would def. want them to learn it by the end of 1st grade even if it was slow.

amy

[1growingsprout]

Melissa and Doug make a couple different learning toys to help with this, one is a wooden shoe and one is a lacing puzzle with different shoes on it.

http://www.gummylump.com/front/f_product.php?id=3845

http://www.gummylump.com/front/f_product.php?id=1844

http://www.gummylump.com/front/f_product.php?id=3236

http://www.gummylump.com/front/f_product.php?id=106

[orangefoot]

I have to admit that it was only when ds2 was about 9 that we realised he couldn't tie shoelaces! He has worn the exact same style of shoe for years and it has a velcro closure so he just never needed to learn.

He can do laces now but still wears the same velcro style shoe as ever.

If you are able to find smart shoes without laces and casual shoes without laces I wouldn't make a problem where one doesn't need to exist.

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by AAK

For those who don't know, the bunny ears is this: First do the basic thing where you cross laces and push one through the triangle. Second, make two "bunny ears" out of the strings and hold them snug. Third, wrap one ear around the other and poke it through the hole. Pull tight and done!

Okay, but does this make a knot? My problem with tying shoes that makes a knot is that in the winter ds needs to get into snowboots for recess and then back into his shoes for class. If he has to struggle getting a knot untied and then re-tying his shoes, he'd be late!

We started working on tying shoes this summer on and off. I think it's going to take my ds *wanting* a pair of shoes with shoe laces to get him to learn how to tie them; right now he doesn't have enough motivation. He's been living in Crocs this summer -- and his velcro shoes from last spring still fit him so that's what he'll be going to school in this fall.

[kblackstone444]

Depends on the child.

My son couldn't tie his shoes until her was 8 1/2. One of my cousins was 9 when she learned. My little girl was 5 1/2 when she learned and I've known children who've learned as early as 4.

[mamabeca]

Originally Posted by LauraLoo

My problem with tying shoes that makes a knot is that in the winter ds needs to get into snowboots for recess and then back into his shoes for class. If he has to struggle getting a knot untied and then re-tying his shoes, he'd be late!

This is why we invented Mocs, right!?!

I have heard Kindergarden teachers complain that kids are not learning knot tying and therefore losing out on a skill set. It does help to improve their eye-hand co-ordination, and spatial development, but it's not a mandatory life or death kind of skill for kids for a long time.

You CAN get a lacing board - or make one pretty easily - which will help them learn. Also getting a dressy bessy kind of doll (I found one in Canada that is a race car driver for my ds) gives them chances to learn w/out it being NECESSARY for them to get it right. There's a curve w/this skill that depends tremendously on individual ability and developmental readiness.

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by mamabeca

This is why we invented Mocs, right!?!

I have heard Kindergarden teachers complain that kids are not learning knot tying and therefore losing out on a skill set. It does help to improve their eye-hand co-ordination, and spatial development, but it's not a mandatory life or death kind of skill for kids for a long time.

LOL! Mocs are the greatest!

But actually, I think that getting ds to do some knot tying and un-tying would be a great idea! I could present it as a challenge activity, and I would bet that he'd love it......and then we could move on to tying his shoes! Thanks for the idea!

[CalaRei]

I remember learning the "tie two loops" together method. That way it's really just an extension of the knot tying technique he's already learning.

Sometimes I STILL use it. It makes neater ribbon bows for me.

[One_Girl]

I gave dd lots of string to practice tying whenever she felt like tying knots so that she would learn the beginning knot on her own. Then I taught her by saying "rabbit ear, rabbit ear, cross them, tuck on under, pull it tight." It took a little practice to get both ears a good size and a lot of encouragement and patience on my part when it took ten minutes to tie one lace but she was so proud to be able to do it herself. It doesn't make a knot and it pulls out just like the other way of tying. If it seems like he struggles with fine motor stuff then maybe he should do stuff like stringing beads, tying knots, and lacing cards with holes before he moves on to tying his shoes.