When I buy shoes for my young boys, sometimes shoes with laces are not even an option. I don't mean for my taste; literally, there are often no shoes in the store in my kids' sizes that have laces. They're all velcro. Which, to be honest, is fine with me, because it means more self-sufficiency for them and a faster trip out the door. But of course, I want them to learn how to tie shoes.
I'm sure there are plenty of parents out there who are all over the bow-tying learning curve, teaching their kids at a young age how to tie a knot. But for those of us who might need a little inspiration, Caroline at Salsa Pie put together a cute manipulative that makes learning to tie a fun game.
With a cardboard piece and some shoelaces, Caroline developed this board that matches her kids' shoe sizes and laces. Even better, she turned it into an art project for the kids, since they colored and decorated their cardboard shoes however they wanted.
Which beats buying shoes with flashing lights any day.
• See more: Salsa Pie
(Image: Caroline Urdaneta, Salsa Pie)
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It was silly but looking back, a genius way to do it- my dad made a game of it and taught me at the mall while my mom was shopping for clothes. He showed me on a mannequin wearing laced up shoes and we ran from one to the next untying then tying them! It passed the "mom shopping" time and I learned something!
LOL -- what a Unitasker! How about having your kiddo practice on a shoe -- yours for instance! 8-)
I like the idea of turning it into an art project - and you don't have to practice on stinky shoes :-).
Yeah, why not just practice on a shoe? It looks kind of cute, but really not like "art" or even "decor", just like a cute practice thingy.
Thank you for posting this. I've been having a hard time teaching my little boy how to tie his shoes. I will be making this tonight.
My kindergarten teacher had us all color a paper shoe and then put lace through it. When we could tie it, our shoe went on the wall as part of the shoe club. In my haste to learn to tie my shoe, I learned incorrectly and still to this day can't tie my shoe the right way.
oh this looks like so much fun for the kids and so functional, ill be trying this out soon with my son. Most of his shoes are velcro too but the coordination he would learn from this will be so handy for the future.