Shoe-Tying Made Simple....Just Be Sure You Read the Directions!

Today we received Shoe-Tying Made Simple by Kelly Wilk, written by an Occupational Therapist. I ordered the book through Southpaw Enterprises. I am pleased with Southpaw. The products arrive quickly and I have yet to order anything that is not worth the money. The book comes with one set of special shoe strings. I found a site where you can order additional shoe strings HERE.

Maizie is ten years old and unable to tie her own shoes. I have not pushed the issue. Recently, she has asked me to teach her. I knew this would be a challenge. Maizie has low muscle tone which makes manipulating small objects a challenge.

When I came across this book I decided it was time to give it a try. I will list the positive and negative points to this book.

Positive
*The book is divided for left handed children and right handed children
*The book stands up which makes it easy to read as you are working on the lesson
* Photos are clear and easy to decipher
*The laces are thick, the left and right side are different colors for learning purposes, have a good texture and are long enough to work with
*Teaches how to tie shoes step by step
*Advice is given on switching from a shoe on the table to the shoe on the foot
*Eventually the child may be able to switch to plain shoe laces

Negative
*The photos only show the shoe from the perspective of it facing the child. This may confuse some children. Even though shoe tying is the same if the shoe is facing you or on your foot this may be a confusing change for some children. Initially it confused me. We decided to begin learning with the shoes on Maizie's feet from the start.
*Since we chose to learn with the shoe on the foot the pictures are all backwards to Maizie
*The rhyme giving directions is a tad wordy. I had to break it down. I don't see the rhyme working for Maizie.
*Shoestrings provided are navy blue and yellow. I think Maizie will require them for quite some time so I was not thrilled with the color. This is me being picky;)

Be sure you take the time to read the directions before working with your child! Read the entire book first. It requires about thirty minutes to read the book and set up the shoes you will work with. Maizie was excited to begin so I was pressured to figure it all out without reading the book. She lost her patience with me and I became upset. I ended up having to sit alone and read the book while I prepared the shoes. Live and learn.

When the book arrives hide it until you have time to study it and prepare the shoes. One would not think setting up to teach shoe tying would take much time but it did. Especially when you consider all of our children's varying skills. You will want to be familiar with it so you can approach it with your child in a positive, well organized manner. I am easily confused and with Maizie hanging over me my first impressions of the book were not good. I kinda screwed that up. Argh.

The book is worth the money. We made more progress in one evening than all of the other times I have tried to teach her to tie her shoes. Tying shoes is something most children learn with a simple rhyme and lots of practice. For Maizie it needs to be broken down and each step will have to be practiced repeatedly before moving on to the next. This book will make that process smoother for both of us. The shoe strings are fantastic and the dual color made explaining it to Maizie easier.

I hope this review helps those of you that were questioning whether or not to buy Shoe-Tying Made Simple. Let me know how it goes! If you have any tips please share them!

A visitor told me about this website called Ian's Shoelace Site. It is full of different techniques for shoe tying.