Tieing shoes?

[Mommee & Baba]

At what age did your child learn to tie their shoes and do it on their own without help anymore?

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I had shoe tying as one of our first "Life Skills" lessons of the year this school year, and at 7 and 8.5, after working on it every day for a week, my kids can finally tie their own shoes.

[KristinaBreece]

He's 5, and we practice.... but I imagine he'll be 6 before he masters this one.

[jujsky]

DD just learned (she's 7). She probably could have learned earlier, but I had such a miserable experience teaching my son, I didn't bother to teach her. I figured she'd ask me if she wanted to learn. She did, I showed her twice, and since then (it was about 2 weeks ago) she's been tying everything in sight! DS is 8, still doesn't know how to tie, and has no interest in learning.

[mytwomonkeys]

my daughter has known for a few years. my son has no idea. oddly, he doesn't even own shoes with laces though - so i need to buy those for him before i try & teach it. otherwise, he would have to practice on his sister, lol.

[Daisy]

My daughter could tie her shoes by the time she went to kindergarten (almost 5yo). My son is 9.5yo and still struggles with it. He can do it if given enough time. He struggles with buttons and other small hand coordination type activities as well.

[abbeyej]

5. I think most kids *can* learn earlier, but since so few kids' shoes come with laces these days, there's really no motivation/opportunity to learn.

[TXBeth]

I chose 5 and also "other." DD5 CAN tie her shoes by herself, but she'd rather not. She does it about half the time. She also needs help doing the double knots, but I think it's just because I haven't shown her yet. If I showed her, she could probably handle it. But she would still rather I tie them.

Then again...she sometimes "needs" help with her socks still, too. :glare:

[Lolly]

Mine have varied widely! Ds was about 9. Dd19 4ish. Dd17b 5ish. Dd17a was all of 2! (Her best friend knew how to tie and taught her. I was in shock as her big sister, dd19, had just started tying her own.)

[Guest submarines]

My 9 year old still can't, but I have yet to buy him shoes that tie so it just hasn't come up yet.

:iagree:

 

 

It hasn't come up yet. I'm pretty sure anyone 8 and over who wants a particular pair of shoes can master the skill in minutes.

[SeekingSimplicity]

My oldest could at 4, middle child did closer to 8, ds 6 could if he wanted to, but he doesn't really want to. He's working on it.

[higginszoo]

Most have been 5-6. I have a 10 year old who still struggles with it (he can do it, but not easily), but he's got some other challenges that might contribute to his difficulty.

[Dmmetler]

What does "can tie them, but they don't stay tied" count as? That's where my almost 7 yr old is.

[creativish]

What does "can tie them, but they don't stay tied" count as? That's where my almost 7 yr old is.

 

Ugh, this is our house. My girls have been able to tie since 5-6ish but they never stay tied and it drives me batty. Not to mention how many times we've been late because of shoe laces:glare:

Today I just bought more velcro shoes for my 5 yr old son... guess that means I'm in no rush:tongue_smilie:

[Splinter]

My two oldest were 4, I think. Next guy was 5 and my youngest is working on it now. He can physically do it perfectly, but needs someone to remind him of the steps.

[Spock]

At what age did your child learn to tie their shoes and do it on their own without help anymore?

 

When I taught daycare, most of my class learned to tie their shoes between 4-5yo--because I only let them take off their shoes for nap if they could put them back on and tie them independently.

 

However, my own kids inherited my poor fine motor skills. They could all tie their shoes more or less at age 7. However, I voted age 8, because the poll said "without help anymore". Truthfully, though, I have tied soccer shoes up through 10ish, because if they tie their own the shoes will come untied during the game, and sometimes come flying off.

 

As a side note, my nearly 19yo still uses the "bunny ears" method to tie his shoes, because that's the way he learned, and he never bothered to learn another way once that worked.

[Tigger]

DS learned when he was 5, but still needed help now and then, so mastered at 6.

[Mommee & Baba]

I asked this question because my dh made a comment about how we need to work on it.

 

We tried to get the steps down last year and dd6 was interested for about an hour then never asked again, dd8 could go without knowing how to do it. But since then dd6 has asked to be shown a handful of times, dd8 never again asked.

 

However while we're on Christmas break it's my goal to get them on the right path to learn the steps and praise them and offer rewards for doing it everyday the entire break. DD6 won't take long as she has the steps down but needs to master them. DD8 will have to have motivation in her terms in order to figure it out...so I might have her making sock monsters with bowties...:lol:

[MissKNG]

I checked "other" because we are working on it right now and DD is 5. Funny, I was just wondering about this because I thought we were behind - only because she would be in K at the ps if she went and I imagine that skill would be required since the teacher probably doesn't want to tie shoes for the kids.

[Annie G]

The girls learned when they were 4 or 5. The boy child? He was 14. No kidding. He usually had velcro shoes, and when he outgrew those, the girls at theater tied them for him. What incentive did he have to learn to tie his own?g

[Pamela H in Texas]

I put other as both my big kids were under four. However, none of my littles (oldest is soon to be six) can.

[Farrar]

They can both tie knots, but my 7 yos are allowed to pick out their own shoes (within reason) and they've never picked them, which isn't surprising as there are very few options in the store that require tying. I don't think they're avoiding it or anything, but the options are limited.

[Cinder]

Ds1 was 4--he's always had advanced fine motor skills. Ds2 has poor fine motor; he couldn't tie his shoes well until he was about 8. Dd also has good fine motor and decided at age 5 to tie her own shoes. She even helps her friend tie his. :001_smile:

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Dd was between 4 and 5. She's always had great fine motor skills and the most girly shoes had laces. She was the shoe helper in K.

 

Ds just turned 7 and doesn't own laces! I'd like for him to get himself dressed independently and consistently before I even attempt shoe tying.

[Virg]

My twins were 10 :( I don't know what the issue was! I showed them over and over but they just couldn't get it. They could do buttons and everything else buy tying bows eluded them.

[Jennifer in MI]

My dd was and is a very determined little kid. She sets her mind to it and it is good as done. She wanted to do it at four and she learned within a week!

[Munchkins_mama]

I was just thinking about this this week. DD6 doesn't know how to tie laces. She can makes knots though. I don't know how many things I find hanging from the slats in her bunk beds ties with many, many, MANY knots. :glare:

 

I don't remember when older DD started tying shoes. Must have been really young though...

 

DD6 doesn't own any shoes with laces. She is partial to shiny slip-on shoes. Her tennis shoes are light up princess ones with velcro.

[ZooRho]

one child was very late in learning.

and the other early.

 

the early one was the youngest and he got tired of waiting to get his shoes tied I guess

[athomeinMT]

Both of mine were 3 when they learned. Dh felt that they should be ready to learn how so he sat them down and by the end of the day they had it down. I have no idea how he did that. I thought everyone learned that early until they got a little older and they kept tying their friends shoes.

[Delighted3]

My youngest ds was 7. He could have learned earlier, but it just wasn't a priority. All of my older children learned before they were 6.

Joy

[mom2att]

I don't remember how old my firstborn was--maybe 5 or 6? My middle child finally learned at 10. My youngest at 8 cannot yet tie his shoes, but it hasn't been a priority for us and I've never tried to teach him. He current tennies do have laces, so now would probably be a good time.

[Sasharowan]

Dd was 4 or 5, taught herself. Ds15 was about 7 or 8. Ds10 still wants help, can do it on his own, but takes forever. Ds5 doesn't even try right now.

[abacus2]

My oldest was 6. I was shocked. I took her shoe shopping before day camp and she wanted to try some lace up shoes. I said that we needed to get shoes she could do since I wouldn't be at camp with her to help. She told me that she knew how to do ties so I had her show me. She did them perfectly. I asked who taught her, and she said, "Oh, nobody. I just watched what you do and did that." We haven't tried yet with my young 5 year old. She doesn't own any tie shoes, and since she's a little kid's size 10, there aren't many tie shoes available in her size anyway.

[AngelaNYC]

My son was 3. He just got intensely driven one day to actually get it. He learned to do it backwards since I've always faced him when tying his shoes :D. But right at 3 years old he was tying laces tightly and double-knotting. He was the designated shoe-lacer in preschool.

[Mama2Many4]

My boys are 8 and 6 and they have no interest in learning.:glare:

[Paz]

Both of my kids went to ps kindergarten. It was a required skill to learn to tie their shoes. They both had trouble at this age (5). My dh finally taught them to make 2 bows on either side of the shoe and then cross the bows over and tie them together. Aparently dh had trouble learning to tie his shoes too and this was his solution. My kids are 21 and 19 and still tie their shoes this way. :lol: My ds gets some kidding from his friends for the way he ties his shoes. My dd, no one seems to notice.

[Mommy22alyns]

6 for both girls, but they pretty much never have to tie their shoes because we don't wear that style much. I basically used it as a milestone where I would teach Rebecca how to knit.

[TeachingTwins]

My twins learned last summer, but I still help with a double knot sometimes -- especially if they are playing outside and I want it to be tight. They have trouble with keeping the tension constant so the laces are pulled tight.

[boscopup]

Still trying here. :glare: I've mostly avoided the subject (poor fine motor skills) by buying shoes without ties. I have several sizes of one particular shoe that looks nice with casual jeans and dress pants and stays on when running on the playground. They're slip-on. Love them. The big boys both have tennis shoes right now, and I was going to get laces, but we ended up with fake laces! They're just elastic, and there is a piece of velcro where the tie would be.

 

DS1 has a pair of dress shoes that tie, and DH and I have both tried to teach him to tie them. He can do the first knot, but can't do the bows at all. I need to work with him more on it. He finally figured out that he could just leave them tied and slip them on and off that way. :lol:

[Staceyshoe]

Ds is 6.5, and he doesn't know how. All his shoes are slip-ons or velcro. The next pair of shoes with laces, we'll teach him to tie. (Now why his 3 y.o. brother has shoes with laces, I have no clue!:confused:)

[AngieW in Texas]

My oldest was able to do it at 11yo, but it still took her a long time. She's ADHD and Aspie.

 

My middle dd is 16yo and still can't do it at all. She even has difficulty just tying a knot. She has fine motor delays and is also Aspie. She has difficulty with buttons and snaps and zippers. All of her shorts have drawstrings and I had to put on cord stops because she can't tie the drawstrings and she has to be able to tighten the shorts somehow. Nobody makes the elastic tight enough for her.

 

My youngest is 13yo. She can at least tie a knot, but she can't tie a bow. She just can't keep the directions in order. She is dyslexic. She can sew. She can play guitar. She can take great photographs. She can't tie a bow to save her life.

Edited October 30, 2011 by AngieW in Texas

[mamatohaleybug]

My daughter is 9 and can't. She does have motor planning problems (dyspraxia) and fine motor delays.

[katilac]

I'm pretty sure my oldest was 10 before she could do it reliably. I'm not sure when she quit asking for occasional help, but she's 13 and it's definitely been long time. Heh, I'm so proud :tongue_smilie:

 

My youngest is 11, and we nearly always tie her shoes. She CAN do it, but she inherited dh's trait of liking them freakishly tight, which she can't manage.

 

We live in the south and they don't play sports, so it's slip-on shoes far more often than sneakers, and even those often have velcro for the younger set. It took me quite a while when I was a kid, and we wore laced shoes daily for school. I would never have met the benchmark if it were required in kinder or first grade, lol, so maybe it runs in the family.

[jennynd]

DS was able to tie his shoes when he was just turned 3. Simply because most his shoes has laces (I regret that) It is so inconvenient even he know how to tie his shoes, the shoe untied so many times during the day and become dangerous when he running around.

 

My younger is 3. ALL her shoes now are velcro and she not yet have the chance to learn. Ad i don't see that is a necessary thing o earn.

[dsmith]

Ds finally picked it up at 9 years old. It still takes him avery long time to do i .

[IsabelC]

My elder two learned between about 5 and 7. There was quite a long period where they could do it but preferred to have me do it, because that was quicker. The 3yo hasn't even started learning yet, but then she doesn't have any lace up shoes.

[Mommee & Baba]

WOW such a range of answers! Love reading this and all your replies and reasonings.

 

:001_smile:

[cloversandlions]

DS is 12; I think he learned to tie somewhere around 9yo, but even now, it's not easy for him. He keeps his sneakers' shoelaces tied, and slides the shoes on and off without ever untying them.

 

DD1 learned to tie her shoes when she was barely 4yo. A friend in preschool taught her.

 

DD2, who is 7...er, I don't think she's ever even tried to tie her shoes! Most of her shoes have not had laces, so it just hasn't come up. I guess I'll put that on the list of things to do soon.

[Joyofsixreboot]

I didn't try to teach it. When they did ask I showed them. Most were about 7 or first gradish. Most of our shoes don't have strings so it wasn't an issue.