Teaching some kids how to tie their shoes is so not easy, it’s not even funny.
While one child may teach herself how to do it, for another child, it may take time and time and time again for her to actually learn how to tie those shoelaces on her own.
Maddy was a great example of the former, while Owen, is a perfect example of the latter.ย Cora will be a big question mark, since so far, she has expressed zero interest in learning how to tie her shoes.
There are still days, after school, when we bust out the ole Shoelace Box during homework time so that the O-Man can tie, untie, re-tie, untie, re-tie, and untie until he seems to get it. But then the next morning, inevitably, he runs into a wall when it comes to tying his sneaks.
Like many things, shoe-tying continues to be a work in progress.
But clearly, with the popularity of our Shoelace Box our how to teach kids to tie their shoes post, shoe-tying is a challenge for many.ย This post comes in at #3–again, not for the amount of tweets and facebook likes, but essentially for the sheer number of hits it gets from searches, pins, and shares.
Here’s the skinny . . .
- teach mamaโs top 10 all-time best countdown, #3: how to teach kids to tie their shoes
how to teach kids to tie their shoes
For many preschoolers and early elementary students, learning how to tie their shoes takes a simultaneous jiving of both fine motor skill readiness and cognitive readiness. Learning how to tie shoes takes a huge heap of concentration, and kiddos must be at a developmental stage where they are able to try, fail, try again, fail again, and re-try until it finally clicks.ย Thatโs the hard part.
Oh, and they have to want to learn how to do it. If they donโt want to do it, forgettabout it. . .
. . . I grabbed a small cardboard box, a shoe box, and I gathered tons of ribbon and string from our ribbon bag.
I made several holes on the box: three sets of two holes, one inch apart on the top and two sets of holes on each side. . .
And if you want to read about our successes–and what we learned that really helped–head over to the original post!
Tomorrow: teach mamaโs top 10 all-time best countdown, #2.
I remember the original post and was ready to spring into action and make the box but B wasn’t ready. Just the other day he showed some interest in wanting to learn so the timing of this post was a great reminder for me to be patient. =)
Nicole, let me know how it goes–I’m so curious if it works for most kids–or if you have any other suggestions as to how to make it better!!
Love it! Pinning it! So gonna use it with my kiddo who is struggling with this right now. Thanks, Amy. ๐
thanks so much, Julie! Please let me know how it goes for you, and thanks so much for reading!!
Love the two colored string idea – genius! And the swords – my son will LOVE that! We will definitely be trying this approach. Thanks for sharing! ๐
Kelli–
Thanks so much, my friend! Please let me know how it goes for you!! Thank you so much for reading!!
I was thinking that I needed to start to work on this!
Good luck, my friend! Not an easy task–at least for my boy! ๐
It looks like the link is broken (Getting “404 NOt Found” page)… AND I HAVE KIDS THAT NEED TO learn to tie shoes!!!! Any chance you can fix the link? Would love to hear about a technique that has been successful…
SO STRANGE! Sorry, friend. Here’s the original link: how to teach kids to tie shoes