Learning to Tie Your Shoes

My youngest son is in grade 1 and has no desire to learn how to tie his shoes. My oldest was in grade 2 when he finally mastered tying his shoes but he showed an interested in it when he was in grade 1. I don't want to make a big deal about it but it seems every time we show him he just changes the subject or walks away. Just wondering when your kids learned to tie their shoes?

I'm sorry your son is not wanting to learn to tie his shoes. My daughter, also in the 1st grade, shows no interest in learning. She always wants to get shoes that require either slipping on or strapping on some Velcro. My daughter though, she is going through something though where she doesn't want to learn anything new. She isn't even trying! It's frustrating. When she comes home and tells me that a friend of hers tied her shoes, I ask her if she would like to tie her shoes so she can help her friends as well, and it kind of makes her think. Within the last week or so, we went back to working on tying her shoes, and each time she gets frustrated, I remind her of how much better she will feel when she can do it on her own...it's just a part of growing up. I don't try to push her, but I do keep coming back to it. Have you tried (I know it sounds bad) but bribing him with like something sweet or something if he pays attention and tries? I know sometimes that can get a child's attention. It works with my nephews..

I feel better knowing my son isn't the only 6 year old who isn't interested. Velcro shoes have done kids a bit of a disservice. When I was young there was no velcro and you had to learn to tie your shoes. It's hockey season in Canada my son just started to show an interest in tying his skates. So we are going to run with it and perhaps he will learn to tie, it might just be on skates and not running shoes. If this doesn't work I may offer a small bribe of candy for every attempt. I hope it's just a maturational thing. I can't stand it when I see kids that are 10 or more still wearing velcro shoes. It just looks a bit ridiculous.

I am right there with you on my son not having the desire! He is starting kindergarten this coming school year and we just now got him to say his ABCs. He is very smart. And has literally know them for a year, but is stubborn as a mule. I have tried the tying the shoes thing, and he tell me he is just going to wear flip flops or shoes with Velcro. It literally want to go insane when he says that. He has no motivation or desire until he himself is ready to do it. I can not even push him or bribe him to do it. I am just waiting, thinking he will just do it on his own schedule.

I haven't had to teach any children this just yet, but I have seen some interesting ideas around before on how to teach things such as tying shoes. A common Montessori method is to use a board (it can even be just heavy duty cardboard you have laying around the house) with holes in it like you find at the top of a shoe. You use yarn, string, or even actual shoelaces and let the child practice tying that way. It is less intimidating than the shoe and since there is less to distract them with the board as opposed to the shoe they can focus more intently on the activity at hand (in this case the tying). This a Montessori tablet method and there are similar things for practicing braiding, buttoning, zipping, etc. Maybe using this as a different way to approach the idea of tying his shoes will be more successful because it will seem more like a game or fun activity.