Now that school is around the corner, you obviously won’t be able to tie your son or daughter's shoes so it is important they learn how to do it on their own. Buying shoes or runners with laces is a great way to teach children how to do it, although you can practice on cardboard shoes it you like.
While it can be a little tricky starting off, once they get the hang of it there will be no going back.
Talk about it
Don’t just assume your youngster is ready to tie their laces just because they have reached a certain age. Talk about how it is a process of growing up and get them excited about their new adventure. If your little one is struggling or really isn’t interested in doing it for themselves invest in a few books where the characters are learning to tie their shoes.
Offer praise
Don’t rush them or become frustrated when they get it wrong, it is a particularly challenging thing to master and might take a bit of time. When they do get it wrong, encourage them to keep trying and offer plenty of praise for trying in the first place. A reward chart for trying and eventually mastering it will be a great incentive.
Practice
Remember, practice makes perfect. To get your little one used to tying laces, draw two shoes onto a piece of cardboard, punch eight holes along the tongue of the shoe and thread laces through. This is a great way to help your child practice whenever they can, whether they have shoes with laces or not just yet.
Use multicoloured laces
Make the task a little more visually appealing by investing in multicoloured laces. This can make it easier to see the laces as two different pieces of string rather than one long one.
Teach them the bunny method:
Get your little one to hold the laces in either hand.
Tell them to pull one lace under the other and pull tight. Put into bunny ear shapes.
Now get the bunnies to chase each other around the tree by crossing the ears over each other.
One bunny will run into a hole as you loop one under the other.
Pull tightly.
