Shanterest: Teaching Kids How to Tie

Day 2: Creative Methods to Teach Kids How to Tie

Source: skinnymom.com via Shannon on Pinterest

Jaden is in Kindergarten. She has had the desire to learn to tie her shoes for about a year now, but gets so frustrated! Mom pinned this article the other day.  I read it and decided to give it a shot!

The writer gave three different teaching methods. The first one was what we have been struggling with for a while, "Bunny Ears."  The problem that Jaden was having was, her laces were not overly long and she wasn't finding there to be enough room to get her two ears tied.  She would get frustrated so easily and be quick to give up.  I tried "The Squirrel and the Tree" method.  This is how we all tie our shoes.

The Squirrel and the Tree

1. Tell the child to create “tree roots” by making a starter knot.
2. Make a tree with a long thin loop, holding the loop in the child’s right hand.
3. With his left hand, take hold of the lace and tell him that a squirrel runs around the tree and jumps into the hole under the tree and comes out the other side (he’ll need to switch hands at this point which can be difficult for some kids).
4. (Many parents prefer this trick because it teaches the kid to tie shoes with the single loop method.)

It worked perfectly!  She definitely got the gist of it. Obviously she still needs to practice, but is well on her way to being an official shoe-tying expert!