Teach children to tie their shoes

[BioAdoptMom3]

Actually, though young children in many cases can be taught to do it, tying shoes is considered a six year old skill as far as development is concerned. So, really its not all that unusual to have kindergartners and first graders who still cannot tie their shoes.

What I don't understand is the $80 shoes for those young kids. Nevermind the tying issue. I would be more concerned that they were growing out of them too quickly and didn't know how to keep them clean and in good condition.

Nancy

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by Sam82

I think it is so funny that I have students with extremely expensive Jordan sneakers on, but they don't even know how to tie their shoes. I'm talking first and second grade students. If I were a parent and spent $80+ on sneakers, I would at least make sure that they knew how to tie the darn things. The laces get messed up very quick when they are constantly dragging on the floor.

I have three sons. The older two learned to tie their shoes before they started first grade. The younger one had so much trouble learning to tie his shoes. He seemed to lack the fine motor skills until he was pretty far through 2nd grade. I have no idea why it took him so long to learn this skill.

[Meyerland]

Originally Posted by sskkc

By the time they're ready for college, I'm sure they will all be able to tie their shoes.

My MIL told us that 30 years ago, she was told not to stress potty training or shoe tying because "everyone figures it out before kindergarten".

Yet, there are many children now who are being denied enrollment in kindergarten because they are not potty trained (and many parents who still put Goodnights on their perfectly healthy but lazy 9 year olds and call them potty trained) and many, many more kids than that are in 3rd grade and can't tie their shoes. It's become such an epidemic that some teachers now send home notices that if your child cannot tie their own shoes, they cannot wear lace ups.

This is happening in both school districts I taught in. I have had kinder and 1st graders come to school in pull ups. One was special needs, but the other was not.

The shoe tying thing is ridiculous. Every kid without fine motor issues should know this by age 8. If they do have fine motor issues, they need fine motor therapy. I made sure every kid left 1st grade being able to tie their shoes. Take a block of wood and nail a heavy duty nail to it. Tie a shoelace string to it, and let them practice. It does help.

[marigolds6]

I was 40 before I learned how to tie my shoes.

This website (in particular the infographic at the bottom of the page) taught me how.

Weekend Diversion: I Finally Learned to Tie My Shoes! – Starts With A Bang

I tied my shoes left lace over right, left hand loop, wrap lace under loop. I reversed my last loop to be a wrap over loop and have been tying my shoes perfectly ever since. And my wife and mom were both very proud that I finally learned how to tie my shoes

Side note: I was unable to tie my shoes, color in the lines, or use scissors. I also had some pretty significant reading difficulties. All of this led to me being tested for special ed. After my test, I was placed into gifted ed instead. It turned out I had been memorizing whole words instead of learning phonics and my apparently lack of learning physical skills was a complete frustration with the slowness of my physical coordination. I still cannot cut straight with scissors or color in the lines. Maybe I'll learn that next decade.

[jasper12]

Forget it. Just buy shoes with Velcro...