If you're little one is ready for lace-up school shoes welcome to an exciting challenge. Whilst you might want your child to stay little and not grow, facing these little reality checks is a good indication that your child is growing faster than you can keep up with. We're here to help you get started with transitioning them from self-fastening shoes to lace up school shoes. There are a few steps to this but all in all, a fun learning and bonding experience for you and your little one.

What should I buy?

Typically, children aged 5-6 years old will be starting this transition to tie their own shoes. If they're younger or a bit older than this age, that’s not to worry every child is different and learns different skills at different ages. The main thing is for them to have the option of both self-fastening shoes and tie up shoes. When it comes to buying school shoes, we might be tempted to just go for buying self-fastening shoes, but this is your time to buy some tie up school shoes and teach your little one. Kids aged 4-6 usually have a 1mm foot growth per month so you may wish to start the school year off with self-fastening and then when you need to buy a new pair, go for shoelaces!

Teaching them how to tie shoelaces

This seems like the most obvious step or suggestion but it’s second nature to us, we don't really think about HOW we tie our shoelaces when we do it so explaining it to your little one might not be easy. We recommend finding a time to get them to grab their school shotes, sit beside them and go through the steps one by one. Be patient and demonstrate how to tie the laces. If you have a catchy song or rhyme to help them remember, use this!

Practice, Practice, Practice

Repeating this skill everday will then assist them in learning and it then becoming second nature to them. In saying this, know that it won't be an overnight process and it takes a lot of reptition which is the best way for our kids to learn a new skill. This goes with all the new skills that they will be learning with school; patience is key. You may also want to invest in some sportier shoes with laces for any afterhours or co-curricular activites and weekend.

Keep their self-fastening shoes around while they're still learning.

Don't let them get defeated if they can't get it straight away. Like we mentioned, this isn't an overnight skill. Keep their self-fastening shoes around for days when they don't have the capacity to handle tying their own shoelaces. Throwing them into the deep end may overwhelm them and we're sure there is already a lot going on with school, afterschool and weekend activities.

We hope you now feel encouraged to transition your child from self-fastening school shoes to lace-up school shoes. Don't forget to head into one of our amazing The Athlete's Foot stores to get your little one’s feet measured and recommendations on the best possible school shoes fit for them.