Tips for Teaching Your Kids to Tie Shoes

Shoe tying is an issue that many parents wonder about when and how they learn. Although parents use these simple techniques every day, teaching children to tie shoes is more difficult than it seems.

Generally, children cannot perform the coordinated movements necessary to tie shoes until they are 5-6 years old. After the age of 5-6, children's motor skills are developed enough for them to learn this multi-step process. You can teach the subject of tying shoes, which plays an important role in the process of meeting the needs of children, in fun ways.

Teach How to Move Fingers While Tying Shoes

In order for your child to learn to tie shoes, his finger skills should develop and he should be able to use them in a coordinated manner. For this; Before you start with the laces, it is useful to show you how to move the fingers.

You can start by showing your child to make the thumb and forefinger into a crab-claw shape so that he or she can do these movements. At the same time, you can create fun games with the crab gripper trick.

In another move, show how the laces will go through each other. It is important that you help your child in these movements and guide the next steps.

Use Different Colors of Laces

While your child is learning to tie shoes, it is important to use laces in different colors. Because using different color laces while the laces are mixed together will help them understand and memorize this multi-step process.

In the next step, you can repeat this process together by putting the colored laces on your child's shoes and tying your own shoes.

Rabbit Ear Technique

The rabbit ear technique is as fun as the crab clamp. You can start the process by making loops. Then you can ask your child to imagine making bunny ears from the laces. When teaching the rabbit ear technique, it is very important that you show your child how to hold their thumb and index finger. Finally, you can show your child how to make bunny ears equal in size.

Cardboard Shoes

Finally, you can have a fun time with lots of repetitions with the cardboard shoe technique, which can be a nice activity again. All you need is a shoe template. You can create a shoe template by drawing a shoe on the cardboard and punching the gaps for the laces to pass through. You can even make your shoe template more fun by painting it with colored pencils.

You should not forget that the most important part in this process is repetition and patience. Because children can sometimes have a hard time learning something new. But it's up to parents to make it easy with fun activities and patience.