How should you teach shoe tying to kids?
First, make sure your child is developmentally ready to tie shoelaces. Children develop fine-motor skills at their own pace, and there is a broad age range of readiness, starting from preschoolers at around age 4, all the way until the elementary school years of age 8-9. It’s perfectly normal to stick with velcro shoes until a child is ready!!
Second, make sure YOU are ready. Parents can become easily frustrated with floppy shoelaces, and they often get discouraged when their child seems uninterested in learning this difficult skill. Remember, stay POSITIVE and find simple ways to describe the shoe tying process.
Finally, model patience and persistence for your children. There are a variety of ways to teach your child how to tie shoes. But the coolest way most certainly involves bunny ears.
Keep it fun!! Like any new skill, learning to tie shoes takes time.
[sc: inlinead]How to Tie Shoelaces with the Bunny Ears Method
Step 1. Take one shoelace in each hand.
Step 2. Criss-cross the laces halfway up, by putting the black lace over the blue lace.
Step 3. Poke the end of the black lace through the bunny hole, by putting it over the blue lace.
Step 4. Hold the end of each lace, and pull tight.
Step 5. Make a bunny ear by making a small loop with the black lace. The bunny ear needs a long tail.
Step 6. Now make a bunny ear with the blue lace. It needs a long tail, too.
Step 7. Cross the bunny ears, by putting the black loop over the middle of the blue loop.
Step 8. Poke the blue bunny ear into the bunny hole, by crossing over the black loop.
Step 9. Keep your fingers inside the bunny ears, then hold tight and pull.
You’ve now laced your shoes!
