3 Printable Activities for Kids to Help With Shoe Tying

(Guest Post: Corey Doane is a digital content creator who helps Adidas create helpful and compelling stories worth sharing. Her background in digital marketing and creative writing has led her to cover unique topics ranging from business to eco to lifestyle. )

Teaching kids how to tie their shoes is an important learning milestone, but it’s not always the easiest. It might seem easy to do, but figuring out how to explain it to children in a way they’ll understand can get a little tricky. From the bunny ear method to the one-loop and swoop, teaching shoe tying takes great practice. Shoe tying requires kids to flex their fine motor skills, which for most, are still developing. This can lead to your kiddo feeling frustrated. 

So how can we take the ease off of them for a bit and make the process a little more fun? Below we’ll explain 3 different activities you can do with your kiddo that can help make tying their back to school shoes just a little bit easier—and hopefully fun, too! 

1. Shoe tying sequence activity 

This sequence activity is great for helping your child understand the steps to shoe tying before practicing with actual laces. Verbally walk through the steps with your child again and again until you feel they’re confident. Then, print out the sheet and have your child cut out the steps. Once cut out, mix them up and have your child put the steps in the correct order. Once they’ve got the steps down, it’s time to practice with laces! 

You can download the sequence activity here. 

2. Shoe tying cards 

This activity is where the shoe-tying fun starts. Print out the shoe templates and cut them out. This step is optional, but for a little more stability, glue cardboard to the back of each cutout. This can make it easier for your child to grasp the cutouts when practicing. Then, use a hole puncher to punch out the holes where the laces will go. 

Once the holes are punched out, lace the shoes up with two different colored laces. Having two colors can help your child differentiate one lace from the other, making the learning process a bit easier. Once you’ve got it all set up, verbally walk them through the steps as they practice with the laces. 

Children often get frustrated with this step, so be patient and make sure to keep encouraging and motivating them along the way!

You can download the shoe-tying cards here. 

3. Shoe tying certificate 

Once they’ve mastered shoe tying on the printable cards and on their own shoes, congratulate them on this win with a shoe tying certificate! This is a huge milestone, so let them know you’re proud of them. Fill out the certificate with their name and let them know they’re now a part of the Adidas shoe tying club! 

You can download the shoe-tying certificate here. 

Though shoe tying isn’t always the easiest concept to teach, these shoe-tying printables can hopefully make it a little bit easier on you and your kiddo.