Teaching Your Little One to Tie Their Shoes...

The way I was taught and still to this day Its how I tie my sneakers/shoes. Take the 2 strings tie them like you normally do, then take one string fold it in half making a bunny ear and do the same thing with the other one, then say the bunnies are gonna run around the tree and bring them together and putting one under the other and pull them together.

Hope that makes sense. Hard to explain without showing.

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make 2 bunny ears cross then take one under the other and pull tight. It works usually.

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What I had as a child and what we made for our kids is...a practice board of sorts. Get a piece of wood and drill holes in it like what would be the laces of a shoe (it will need to be sanded and painted so there are no splinters) then get a shoe lace and lace it the way a shoe is. This gives then a chance to practice with out ruining shoe laces on the shoes then once then can get good at doing it on the board then move on to the shoe.

What worked for me was to each take a shoe and sit next to them and let them mimic you. Hope it helps. J. D

Not to alarm, just to keep in the back of your mind. Problems with shoe tying is just one of many, but it is an early warning sign of dyslexia. Also, he is young. Shoe tying is challenging.

I learned to loop, (Bunny ear) swoop, (pull the lace under and make another bunny ear) and pull. ( tighten the bunny ears)
Works great for right or left-handed children.
Hope this helps, it sure helped me!

I agree with Lyla C.Have you tried the bunny ear method? Every child in our family learned this way first. You make a loop like a bunny ear with each side of the shoe string. Then you cross, take one bunny ear through and pull. Most little hands can do this way before the other method.

Back when my daughter (who is now 8) was learning to tie her shoes, we bought her a book that looked like a shoe with holes in it and came with a string attached that you could "practice" with. She played with that book for hours on end. I think you can find one at a bookstore such as Borders, Barnes and Noble etc...

Use a jump rope and have them sit and place it around their lap. The large size of the rope makes it much easier to handle and understand what to do. This worked like magic for us when we were struggling with the same thing.

A company called Melissa & Doug makes a Wooden Lacing Shoe. It looks like a hightop sneaker and is used to practice tying laces. I'm not sure it's any better than practicing on your own shoes, but it might seem more like a game. I bought one but haven't tried it yet. I likes the idea someone else had about using a jump rope. That sounds clever. Good luck.

You know how to tie a shoe so that is the easy part-now sit directly across from your "student" and show them one move at a time and when they master that then you move on to the next move. Sitting across from them is the same way to teach a left handed person so it works great for all hands. Be sure to praise them for every move and again the next few times as they will need reminding along the way. This can be fun for you to video tape as it goes, great for later when they are learning to drive and need extra help there too.