How to tie shoelaces

"Barbara" wrote in message
ups.com...

bizby40 wrote:
"Barbara" wrote in message
oups.com...
Some schools don't permit the elastic type of sneakers for gym
(although I suppose they would permit them other days); I can't
recall
the reason -- perhaps they're not sufficiently supportive for
athletics?

This would seem to be a strange rule for grade school where
athletics
don't tend to be too intense. And poorly tied shoes, or those that
have come untied and are dragging laces around would seem to be
more
of a danger. I'm not doubting that schools exist with that rule,
but
it seems a misguided rule for grade school to me.

Requiring proper shoes for specific sports like baseball or soccer
makes a bit more sense. But I tie my kids' shoes for those events
even though they're capable of tying their own shoes, because I
know I
can tie them tighter and more securely.

Welll, the gym dept of our school must have seen those shoes fly off
too many kids to permit them.

IME, the shoes most likely to fly off are tie shoes that have either
come untied or have become loosened because the kids slide them off
and on without untying and retying them. I understand that you were
only saying the rule exists and not necessarily defending it, so I'm
not trying to argue with you, only saying that it still doesn't make
sense to me.

Don't the kids play baseball and soccer
in gym at your school?
Our kids do, along with basketball (and, heaven
help me, the boys organized their own football league at recess).


Not in specialized cleated shoes like they would on a team.

Well, if you MUST tie, then the rule applies even if the kid is
wearing
velcro. Sort of like the tests that the local public schools make
kids
pass in 3d grade and -- I forget what other grades. Pass or repeat.
I'd object to that. But I have no problem with a rule that if you
wear
shoes with ties, then you have to know how to tie them.

Yes, I agree with this.

Bizby

"Knit Chic" wrote in message
om...
Just wondering .. if the school "requires" to know how to tie their
shoes by the first grade, what do they do if the child doesn't?

I wondered that myself. There isn't much they can do beyond talk to
the parent.

My 7 year old can't do it ... and I'm no longer pushing her ... as
it stands I'll do what I can to buy her non tie shoes .. but I can't
always do that.

Why not? With non-tie shoes so popular, I actually have more trouble
finding tie shoes for younger kids.

So the teacher is going to have to tie a shoe here and there.

I don't think the teachers at our school refuse to tie shoes, and
other than a note home during kindergarten encouraging parents to work
with their kids, the school doesn't really even push the issue.
Nonetheless, as Donna has seen, I've seen kids tying each other's
shoes. In fact, the kids seem to ask each other before going to a
teacher, and the kids that can do it well are somewhat "stars" in
kindergarten.

Bizby

On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:40:47 GMT, "Donna Metler"
wrote:


Well, one of the kindergarten teachers at my previous school refuses to tie
children's shoes-or to teach children to tie their own shoes, claiming
that's the parent's job. The result is that in her class, the few kids who
are pretty advanced in this area end up tying anyone's shoes who need tying
(either those who are almost 6 starting kindergarten due to cutoffs, were
retained, or were redshirted a year-from what I've seen most young 5s simply
can't do it yet, while most 6's are at least heading in that direction), or
the kids' shoes stay untied until they go to PE or music, where the teachers
absolutely WILL tie shoelaces because it's a danger to the child for them to
be untied since the kids are up and moving.

The kids don't get up and move around the classroom? I would be too
concerned about a child tripping and hurting themselves in my
classroom.

Nan

On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:48:31 -0400, "bizby40"
wrote:


"Knit Chic" wrote in message
. com...
Just wondering .. if the school "requires" to know how to tie their
shoes by the first grade, what do they do if the child doesn't?

I wondered that myself. There isn't much they can do beyond talk to
the parent.

My 7 year old can't do it ... and I'm no longer pushing her ... as
it stands I'll do what I can to buy her non tie shoes .. but I can't
always do that.

Why not? With non-tie shoes so popular, I actually have more trouble
finding tie shoes for younger kids.

They happen to be more popular this year. However (and I'm not
speaking for Knit Chic, only myself) they are the pricier brands such
as Skechers, Nike, etc. I happened to be lucky enough to find
Champion brand less expensive at PayLess Shoes, and DD liked them, so
I was willing to pay more than $20 for them.

Not all parents can afford to shell out $30+ for shoes, especially
when kids are outgrowing them quickly! As their feet get bigger, the
choices for velcro tabbed shoes dwindles greatly, and the pricier
brands are the only ones available.

Nan

"Nan" wrote in message
...
Not all parents can afford to shell out $30+ for shoes, especially
when kids are outgrowing them quickly! As their feet get bigger,
the
choices for velcro tabbed shoes dwindles greatly, and the pricier
brands are the only ones available.

I didn't like velcro, and so I always looked for laces, and sometimes
had trouble finding those. So I guess I was looking at it from a
different perspective.

Bizby

"Cathy Kearns" wrote in message
...

"Jeff" wrote in message
k.net...
I think a lot of times, kids don't learn to tie shoes until they join a
soccer or baseball team because those shoes require tying. As a coach, I
spent a lot of time tying kids shoes.

As a coach I bought my whole team those "sweet spot" things (elastic
sleeves
that go over the laces on soccer shoes) so that I wouldn't spend the whole
game tying shoes. It worked out well. I've also seen teams that have a
parent assigned as "shoe tyer". They would double tie all shoes before
the
game, and then stand in a certain place so kid's who's shoes still came
untied would run to them to get the shoes retied.

I certainly can understand that a teacher wouldn't want to tie all the
kids
shoes. I think it is a parent's responsibility to send kids to school in
clothes the child can handle on their own. If a child cannot yet tie
their
own shoes, then they get sent to school in shoes that don't have ties.
How
hard is that.

Although it's a fine motor skill, that seems, to me, to maybe have a place
in the classroom. Just like learning to write and use scissors, they could
also learn to tie knots and shoelaces.

Jen

Chookie wrote:
How the heck do you teach a child to do it? DS1 is 5 1/2 yo. Tried this
morning, again. He couldn't/wouldn't even copy holding the laces 5cm from the
thumb knot (the knot you make to start), let alone *make* the thumb knot.
Fortunately his school shoes have velcro -- a deliberate choice by me!

At what age do kids typically learn to tie their shoelaces? And how do you
teach it?

Haven't reached that stage yet with DS, but I do recall reading a book
by the mother of a girl with Down's Syndrome, who had the bright idea of
teaching her by creating a set-up with two laces of different colours to
be tied together in a bow - I think she attached them to a board or a
cloth, though I forget that detail. Apparently it was much easier for
her when she could see which lace was which and hence follow the pattern
of what she was doing with them, and she learned within a few days. The
book said that a few friends of the family tried the same thing with
their children and found it helped them a great deal as well.


All the best,

Sarah
--
http://www.goodenoughmummy.typepad.com

"That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be" - P. C. Hodgell

On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 18:00:41 -0400, "bizby40"
wrote:


"Nan" wrote in message
.. .
Not all parents can afford to shell out $30+ for shoes, especially
when kids are outgrowing them quickly! As their feet get bigger,
the
choices for velcro tabbed shoes dwindles greatly, and the pricier
brands are the only ones available.

I didn't like velcro, and so I always looked for laces, and sometimes
had trouble finding those. So I guess I was looking at it from a
different perspective.

I understand. I send DD to school in non-tie shoes because I don't
want her teacher to have to tie her shoes on gym day.

Nan

"Jen" wrote in message
...

"Cathy Kearns" wrote in message
...

"Jeff" wrote in message
k.net...
I think a lot of times, kids don't learn to tie shoes until they join a
soccer or baseball team because those shoes require tying. As a coach, I
spent a lot of time tying kids shoes.

As a coach I bought my whole team those "sweet spot" things (elastic
sleeves
that go over the laces on soccer shoes) so that I wouldn't spend the
whole
game tying shoes. It worked out well. I've also seen teams that have a
parent assigned as "shoe tyer". They would double tie all shoes before
the
game, and then stand in a certain place so kid's who's shoes still came
untied would run to them to get the shoes retied.

I certainly can understand that a teacher wouldn't want to tie all the
kids
shoes. I think it is a parent's responsibility to send kids to school in
clothes the child can handle on their own. If a child cannot yet tie
their
own shoes, then they get sent to school in shoes that don't have ties.
How
hard is that.

Although it's a fine motor skill, that seems, to me, to maybe have a place
in the classroom. Just like learning to write and use scissors, they
could also learn to tie knots and shoelaces.

It's a skill that kids will learn without the school's help when they need
to, like when they want to wear real basketball shoes, soccer shoes or
baseball shoes. It is a fine motor skill better taught at home or in
preschool or maybe kindergarten. I can't imagine how you would justify
paying a teacher $50/hr to teach a kid to tie shoes when probably 1/2 the
kids already know how.

Jeff

Jen

"Nan" wrote in message
...
I understand. I send DD to school in non-tie shoes because I don't
want her teacher to have to tie her shoes on gym day.

Gym day? We have gym every day in grade school!

Bizby