How to tie shoelaces

How the heck do you teach a child to do it? DS1 is 5 1/2 yo. Tried this

bizby40...

I didn't like velcro, and so I always looked for laces, and sometimes
had trouble finding those. So I guess I was looking at it from a
different perspective.

Nikki...

FWIW you can buy a couple different things for tie shoes that replacet he
laces so you don't actually have to tie them. They are really inexpensive.

Cathy Kearns...

When I broke my arm my daughter replaced all my tie shoes with these elastic
locking laces used for triathalons. Pretty cheap (around $2) and you never
have to tie your shoes again. They come in lots of cool colors also.

I don't spend a lot of time shoe shopping so I don't look around a lot. I
don't like character shoes so end up buying tie shoes a lot. My aunt gets
soooo freaking annoyed. She sees no point in buying tie shoes for kids.

Both my kids can tie their shoes but they are loose so I will sometimes do
it.

Nan...

I understand. I send DD to school in non-tie shoes because I don't
want her teacher to have to tie her shoes on gym day.

bizby40...

Gym day? We have gym every day in grade school!

Nan...

Our elementary does, too. But each class has it's own slot, so my
dd's 1st grade classroom has it on Fri afternoon.

morning, again. He couldn't/wouldn't even copy holding the laces 5cm from the
thumb knot (the knot you make to start), let alone *make* the thumb knot.
Fortunately his school shoes have velcro -- a deliberate choice by me!

At what age do kids typically learn to tie their shoelaces? And how do you

L....

IME, 6-7.

teach it?

L....

I used to work at the kid's drop off at a YMCA. This is one thing I
taught to the kids because I had 1-1.5 unstructured hours with each of
them every day, so I looked for positive ways to use that time.

I used the "Here's the tree, the rabbit runs around the tree and into
the hole" method.

Sarah Vaughan...

Haven't reached that stage yet with DS, but I do recall reading a book

bizby40...

This would seem to be a strange rule for grade school where athletics
don't tend to be too intense. And poorly tied shoes, or those that
have come untied and are dragging laces around would seem to be more
of a danger. I'm not doubting that schools exist with that rule, but
it seems a misguided rule for grade school to me.

Requiring proper shoes for specific sports like baseball or soccer
makes a bit more sense. But I tie my kids' shoes for those events
even though they're capable of tying their own shoes, because I know I
can tie them tighter and more securely.

Barbara...

Welll, the gym dept of our school must have seen those shoes fly off
too many kids to permit them. Don't the kids play baseball and soccer
in gym at your school? Our kids do, along with basketball (and, heaven
help me, the boys organized their own football league at recess).

by the mother of a girl with Down's Syndrome, who had the bright idea of
teaching her by creating a set-up with two laces of different colours to
be tied together in a bow - I think she attached them to a board or a
cloth, though I forget that detail. Apparently it was much easier for
her when she could see which lace was which and hence follow the pattern
of what she was doing with them, and she learned within a few days. The
book said that a few friends of the family tried the same thing with
their children and found it helped them a great deal as well.

Jen...

Although it's a fine motor skill, that seems, to me, to maybe have a place
in the classroom. Just like learning to write and use scissors, they could
also learn to tie knots and shoelaces.

Jen...

But like I said, they could be learning other knots as well. We don't pay

bizby40...

What I mean is that every class has gym every day. Up until last year
they had gym four days a week -- every day except "block day" when
they had art, music and library. They've changed it now though, so
they have art one day, music another, library another, Spanish another
and....can't remember what on the fifth day. But they all have gym
every day.

Nan...

Our school system doesn't have that kind of schedule until middle
school.

much for school, but we pay a lot for preschool/kinder. There are a lot of

bizby40...

IME, the shoes most likely to fly off are tie shoes that have either
come untied or have become loosened because the kids slide them off
and on without untying and retying them. I understand that you were
only saying the rule exists and not necessarily defending it, so I'm
not trying to argue with you, only saying that it still doesn't make
sense to me.

bizby40...

Not in specialized cleated shoes like they would on a team.

things taught in the early years of school that some of the kids already

bizby40...

Well, it's different from middle school in that it's the entire class
going to one class or the other. Also, they are with their homeroom
teacher most of the day, it's only PE and that one other class that
they troop off to another teacher.

DD is in middle school this year, and she does not have gym every day.

enigma...

then your school is unusual. in funding cuts, arts & gym in
lower grades are among the first things to go. in many
elementary schools recess is severely curtailed or non-
existant too.
and then people wonder why kids are so squirmy & antsy in
class...

bizby40...

Yes, the more I read this group, the luckier I feel in my school.

lee

Nan...

Well, I'd say her school is unusual, but not for the same reasons.
Our school has a full-time gym teacher on staff. But there are so
many classes that each one gets one slot per week.
I'm not sure when recess is cut back, but E still gets plenty of
outdoor time, in 1st grade. I know 2nd grade also has recess.

bizby40...

I'm sorry, but I can't parse this sentence. What's the difference
between "have to tie their own shoes" and "must tie"? And what does
"either" refer to?

Barbara...

Well, if you MUST tie, then the rule applies even if the kid is wearing
velcro. Sort of like the tests that the local public schools make kids
pass in 3d grade and -- I forget what other grades. Pass or repeat.
I'd object to that. But I have no problem with a rule that if you wear
shoes with ties, then you have to know how to tie them.

toypup...

I read it as she's okay with a rule about kids having to tie their own shoes
if they are wearing tie shoes, but she doesn't like a rule where they must
wear tie shoes and therefore must tie them.

bizby40...

Oh, I see. I'd agree with that too. I can understand not wanting to
tie 20 pairs of shoes.

bizby40...

I suppose that with an IEP, the school would have to work with them.
Without one....numerous fruitless parent consultations?

Her school is on the block system, so she has two schedules that she
switches between day by day. One day is PE then math then science
then language arts, and the next is Math then social studies, then
"exploratory" (band + elective) then language arts. I find it very
confusing to have to remember which day is what, but I guess the kids

bizby40...

Yes, I agree with this.

get used to it. The periods are 90 minutes long, and since they have
math and language arts every day, the end result is that they have
almost twice as much in those two subjects as I did in school, and
only half as much time for electives.

know.

All the best,

npardue...

Shaina learned to tie her shoes quite late. I don't recall exactly, but
she's was probably 8ish before the mastered the 'bunny ears' method,
and several years older before she she could do the standard tie. I
think she had (and has) really small hands and just couldn't hold onto
the loops without them slipping apart. (I still remember that on the
kindergarten readiness list, that was the ONLY skill she didn't have at
5 1/2!)

(Even up to a couple of years ago she had trouble with it. She just
doesn't do it that often [most of her shoes don't have laces, and those
that do she still tends to just slip on and off without tying/untying
them.)