Tying our shoes is something we do as adults and often without thinking. As children get older they also need to learn how to tie their own shoelaces independently. It can be challenging. Here is a simple tool that you can make at home can help teach children to tie their shoelace and have fun at the same time.
Possum (3 years old) is not yet at the age where she really needs to learn how to tie her own shoelaces, velco is our best friend and makes things easier and quicker when getting dressed. Having said that, I was recently inspired by this post and had to give it a go myself. Possum had SO much fun with these shoebox shoes and playing with the laces, attempting to tie and untie them, was all wonderful fun and something that kept her busy for most of the day. Great for fine motor development too!
How to make shoebox shoes with laces
You will need –
- empty tissue box
- pen or pencil
- shoelace
I began by marking a few holes on the top of the tissue box to indicate where I would like my shoelaces to thread through. Once I was happy with that I pushed a pen through each of the marks to create a hole. Tissue boxes use quite thin cardboard so it was very easy to push the pen through.
Threading the shoelaces through the tissue box, you want to be sure that the laces finish poke up and out of the tissue box, otherwise your child will be attempting to tie a shoelace that has the ends inside the box.
It should look a little something like this!
Depending on the age of your child, they might use this tissue box to learn how to tie (or untie) their own shoelaces, or they might just like to have fun putting the it on their feet and walking or dancing around.
Tissue boxes come in all shapes, sizes and colours so children can collect them and make lots of different shoes they can wear and have fun with. If your looking for a great tutorial on how to tie shoelaces then I would like to recommend this one –
So I hope that you and your child find this teaching tool helpful. It’s great way to teach children how to tie their own shoelaces, but is also fun for younger children to play with. I also love that it helps to build of fine motor skills and can be made so easily using things you’ve probably got around the house.
Oh Kate… where was this guide when I was teaching primary school kids???!!! I would often fumble and stumble my way through trying to explain it. Love this idea! If I was still teaching, I would make one of these and keep it in the classroom!
Thank you so much Lucy. My little Possum has loved dancing around the house in these shoes too! So many uses. Lol
What a clever and fun idea.
I baby sit a 8 year old girl. and her 4 year old brother . I am always looking for new ideas for them. The 8 year old doesn’t know how to tie shoes yet. So I will be making couple of these one for each child.
I just finished potty training the 5 year old.
Thank you for this great idea.