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Shoe Tying Advice

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2004 Nov. - 2005 Jan.: Parenting Place {ARCHIVES}: Shoe Tying Advice users admin

Author Message
Danas15146
Member

03-31-2004

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 10:06 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Anyone have some good tips on teaching children to tie their own shoes? I am embarassed to say that my six year old doesn't know how - and I have no idea how to teach him.

Graceunderfyre
Member

01-21-2004

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 10:12 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Don't feel bad! With velcro - kids don't need to learn for a while :-) I feel like that's a normal time to master the art of shoe tying. Am I wrong about that?

Reader234
Member

08-13-2000

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 10:32 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
patience!! Have lots and lots of patience, if they want to learn, take the time...

Danas15146
Member

03-31-2004

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 11:11 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
LOL guys. I am panicing because we are in a size 13 shoe and haven't seen the velcro any bigger! He has asked a few times - I just don't really know how to explain it. One of those - I know how to do it - but how do I show someone else.

Landi
Member

07-29-2002

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 11:15 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
watch the movie "raising helen", there's a great scene of after the children's parents pass away, the littlest girl was just learning to tie her shoes, and helen(kate hudson) remembers how her parents taught her. if i remembered the exact scene i'd type it for you, but i saw it a few months back. i know you can rent the dvd or vhs at your local movie rent place.

Hippyt
Member

06-15-2001

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 11:29 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
My son is 7 and just learned to tie his shoes. His grandpa taught him,I wish I could help you out. Dad tried to teach him,but they never got it.As Reader said,patience........

Reader234
Member

08-13-2000

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 11:45 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Its the "Bunny Ears" scene, you make loops, but call them "bunny ears" and the other string, you can go around trees, and in holes.... but Landi is right there are cute poems about tying shoes, I'm at school and cant google... with my kids, they just wanted someone to show them over and over again, and again... so any spare moment,, we sat and tied shoes, watching tv, tie shoes, waiting in lines at stores, ite shoes... over and over !!

Reader234
Member

08-13-2000

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 11:48 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
How to info

Pic and tune to tie shoes

Claims to be Bunny Ears Method

Hope this Helps!


Lumbele
Member

07-12-2002

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 11:51 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
We had one of those cloth clown dolls with big buttons, zippers, velcro, laces, snaps for ds to "play" with. But when it came to shoes we still both sat there, shoe in lap, practicing step by step.
BTW, 6 is about the right age to start to learn if I recall correctly.

Found this site

"When I was teaching my daughter (then 3), I made up a song to go along with it. You may find that it works for you as well.(you have to actually demonstrate while singing or risk looking really stupid) " Cross them over, make a loop Wrap it around, and pull it through And there you go, you have a bow!! I know, pretty corny, but it works! Good luck!!"


Wargod
Moderator

07-16-2001

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 11:52 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Forget learning to tie them, invest in duct tape, LOL. My daughter learned last year at 5, she's pretty good at it, though she's one of the few in her class who can do it. The few who can are usually asked to help their classmates who haven't gotten the hang of it.

My 8 year old son, I've about given up on. Don't get me wrong, he learned how to tie them at about 6, but I've noticed among him and his friends, shoe tying isn't all that important, lol. There always seems to be something much more important to do than tying their shoes. We are constantly replacing shoe strings because he is forever running around with them untied, dragging them through puddles and mud and whatever else there is to drag them through. I'm only half joking about this! When I volunteer in his class I'm forever telling the kids to tie their shoes. I've finally got to the point I've threatened to duct tape his shoes on, lol.

Like Reader, our kids didn't want someone to tell them, they wanted to be showed. So we'd sit on the couch with a spare shoe and show them over and over again. We did try the little poems, but mostly for them it was the showing how to do it that helped the most.

Reader234
Member

08-13-2000

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 - 11:53 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Here are two poems I have. The first is the "rabbit ear" one you didn't want:>
1. Once there was a rabbit who was very sad because his ears were so long and narrow that he stepped on them all the time. One day a fairy landed on the bunny's head. She lifted up the bunny's ears and crossed them over like an x. Then she put one ear through the bottom of the x and pulled. Next, she made each long ear into a loop and made another
> x like before. She put an ear under that x and pulled again. From then on the bunny remembered how to tie his ears into a bow, and he lived happily every after.
>
> 2. First color the shoe laces with permanent marker so you can cue the child on which side they should be working with at a given step.Here's how the poem goes each line corresponds to one step of the tying process.
> Build a tee pee
> Come inside
> Close it tight so we can hide
> Over the mountain
> And around we go
> Here's my arrow
> And here's my bow!
>
> Other ideas:
>
* have the children bring in a small shoe box. Paint the boxes and make them look like a shoe. Poke about 6 holes in the top to look like the top of the shoe. Take two different color shoe laces and tie them in a knot. Then lace up the shoe (box) the two different colors make it easier for them to see what part goes where.
> * Collect misc. plastic lids from butter containers, coffee cans, peanut cans, etc. Use a hole punch, or hammer and nail to make holes in lids.
> You can make a straight line, circle around the edge, criss-cross and more. then for each lid, thread a shoelace through one hole. use these lids for lacing activities for you children.


Graceunderfyre
Member

01-21-2004

Friday, December 17, 2004 - 11:23 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
thats funny you can't find velcro any bigger - most of my kids either have zip up or velcro shoes at the ymca. . . it's a joke my counselors and I have that kids these days don't learn to tie their shoes anymore.

Julieboo
Member

02-05-2002

Friday, December 17, 2004 - 11:52 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
There's a book called "Red Lace Yellow Lace" that's supposed to be really good. My sister used that book on all four of her kids and highly recommends it.

Whoami
Member

08-03-2001

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - 10:40 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I haven't read all the advice yet, just had to scroll down here right away to respond and agree with PATIENCE! I'm 46 and I can still remember the humiliation of people around me "knowing my awful secret" of "still not knowing how to tie her shoes."

I can remember sucking my thumb till a late age, and Mom having to come to the school to bring me clean underwear cause I'd had an accident. I kinda feel like I grew up feeling like a stupid disgraceful child. I know my mom wouldn't have said things like that to me back then. It must have been my grandmother, who got rather a kick putting people down.

Julieboo
Member

02-05-2002

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - 8:58 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I just got that book and it is great. It's a board book with a page that has a red lace and a yellow lace. Check it out...