Can't Miss Shoe Tying Tips & Tools for Kids

Shoe tying can be difficult for children to master since there are many skills that are involved simultaneously. It requires fine motor skills, good visual perception and visual motor abilities, bimanual hand use, and hand strength. Kindergarten is a great time to start teaching children how to tie their shoes.  Developmentally, they are gaining more dexterity in fine motor skills and they are getting used to the routines of getting ready for school on a daily basis.  Shoe tying is part of that daily self-care schedule.  Often children don’t start tying shoes until they are older because there are many steps, two laces that look the exact same, and many times left-/right confusion.

Here are some helpful tips when teaching shoe tying:

Position of the Shoe

Place the shoe or practice board in front of the child on their lap, or a table. It is harder to tie when the shoe is on the child’s foot, so starting in an easier position is the first step.

Need a reasonably priced practice board? Here is one we found for $5.00!


Use Two Color Laces

Cut two laces and tie them together to make two different colors, or purchase Tying Is A Snap laces here.  Etsy also sells two-color laces. A book to practice tying is “Red Lace, Yellow Lace.” 

Tying Is a Snap Laces on Amazon

Red Lace, Yellow Lace on Barnes and Noble

Best Shoe Lacing Materials for Practice

Stiff flat laces are best for practice, but wire ribbon also works. The wire helps hold the loops in position while the student is working on the next step. You can practice with large things like jump rope tied around the child’s thigh. Pipe cleaners are too stiff and Wiki Stix are too sticky so they are not materials of choice.


Use a Tool to Help with the Loops

 Loopers Laces have Velcro spots on them to hold  loops in place. Another product, Loopeez,is a foam piece with two holes in it to hold the laces in place. A clothespin can also work if the child is able to pinch the clothespin onto the lace in order to hold the loop in place. You can also make a slit in a foam piece and use it to hold the loop in place while you manipulate the other loop.

Loopers Laces for purchase here


Long Laces

When kids are learning to tie their shoes, they need enough lace to get a good-sized loop for the bow. If it is too short, you have to be precise in the size, so there is not as much room for success. Here are some colorful ones we found on Amazon. 


Try Different Techniques

There are two main ways to tie shoes:

1) One loop method -  make a loop, circle the lace around that loop, and pass it through the hole to make the second loop.

2) Two-loop/aka bunny ears method -  make two loops, tie the two loops in a knot.  Try  method one first since there are less strings to hold onto at the same time. Then, try the second method to see if it is easier for the child.

A last resort third method is PAT (push and tie) -Tie a second (loose) knot in their laces, take the end of their lace, and thread it back through the knot where the lace just came out of to make a loop.


Put dots on the laces to show where to hold

Loopers Laces have Velcro, or you can put your own Velcro on the laces. You can also put dots on the laces with a sharpie to give kids a visual of where the laces need to be held. Anne Zachry has a video of how she does this technique. Another product, Tie Z’s, are snaps that you attach to a shoe lace to act as the sharpie dots.


Elastic or Velcro

If shoe tying is just not happening, you can use elastic laces or Velcro. Elastic laces on shoes make it easy to slip them on and off without tying.

I hope you were able to find some helpful tips and tools in this post! 



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