Simple homemade lacing board

I’m so excited to share with you my simple homemade lacing board for kids. It’s so easy to make you only need a few things that you’ll have around the house. When your child plays with this simple lacing board they will develop fine motor skills while building an understanding of basic sewing skills. 
This simple lacing board has been an idea sitting in my head for a long time. I’ve wanted to get around to making it ever since I made my homemade tugging box, which has been an incredibly popular.

I’m pleased to say that this homemade toy, which only requires two materials to make, turned out as fun and as fabulous as I pictured it would be. Possum (aged 3.5 years) couldn’t get enough of it. She loved it for the creative designs she could make and the relaxation it instilled in her while she used it. I hope you have a chance to make one.

Recommended age: 3 years +
(Active supervision is required on all my activities)

It really is so very simple to make at home. Basically you’ll need a piece of cardboard, a pen to create the holes and something to thread through them. Ribbon, wool would all work quite well, however, I used some shoelaces because I like the hard plastic ends (known as an aglet) that would make threading easy. I also love that they came in a variety of colours, which adds to the creativity of this activity. Of course you could paint the cardboard, but we didnt worry and got straight to playing.
It really didn’t take much to explain how to use the lacing board. As soon as I handed Possum the shoelaces she began weaving them through the many holes on the board. It was also interesting to see how she chose to thread the shoelaces. We didn’t need to tie one end to the board, Possum was extra careful to not pull the shoelace too far through, however, it might suit some children to secure one end before they begin lacing. 
Majority of the time she felt most comfortable threading down the hole, bringing the shoelace up from around the side of the board and back down another hole. It started to look much like a blanket stitch. 

The large size of the board was also great because it sat comfortably on Possum’s lap and it was easy enough for her to hold and move around. 

I’m telling you, we did this activity over and over again. Possum just loved it so much. It made me think how this type of activity was a lovely introduction to her learning to develop basic sewing skills. 

There are of course many other benefits to having your child do this simple activity. Whilst Possum was using her simple homemade lacing board she was absolutely captivated and had great concentration.  She came to realise that each time she threaded the shoelace through the hole she needed to pull its length completely or else she’d struggle to reach the next hole. It was a lovely way for her to learn through experimentation and trial and error. 
There was so much great conversation that occurred during this activity. I found myself using lots of really great describing words, which Possum soon began adopting too. Much of what we were talking about were related to maths terms and described length. 

Like I said, this was an activity that we did over and over again and it was interesting to see how different it looked each time, even with only two colours. Even though this simply homemade lacing board helped to develop fine motor skills and concentration, it was also a very unique and creative way of learning. 

Would your child enjoy playing with their own lacing board? 

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