Does your child wear lace up shoes to school?

[Hulababy]

And can they tie them for themselves?

Has driven me mad this week. So many of our infant school children wearing lace up shoes and trainers to school, and not being able to tie them for themselves.

Soggy laces from the rain - yuk! I hate having to bob down in a wet playground to tie them over and over again. My skirt gets soggy at the back. My hands get soggy and dirty.

I reckon we should ban children from having laces until they can tie them for themselves.

Grrr......

[Half in jest - not really criticising all my mums, dads and pupils - just incase anyone googles me, etc. But half not too..... )

Mine are 5 and still wear velcro because it's easy. But their school has gadgets like this and thisto teach them to tie their own laces. I learned when I was 6 and see no reason why they shouldn't too.

Lots of very earnest responses here. My 7yo can do them, but I get velcro for all my three as it takes long enough to get out of the house as it is. I don't buy laces for myself either - prefer zips for the same reason really.

Shoes?! Who can afford shoes these days?

Velcro is great for ease but doesn't work when the shoe has to provide proper support eg football boots, walking boots and some ice skates. You can adjust the degree of tightness far better with a lace.

DS1 learned in a hell of a hurry over a day last week when I discovered they had to have walking boots for a Scout Camp the following day! One may be able to get velcro walking boots in a size 2 but really, by 10, a DC who hasn't got the manual dexterity to tie them themselves perhaps has other problems that might need investigating.

Message withdrawn

My DS (7) wears velcro (tried laces 2 years ago) but not ready. Can't believe teachers are expected to tie them, I'm sure they wouldn't at my DS' school there wouldn't be enough time surely if everyone had laces. Definitely something that should be taught at home. Anyway, what's the big deal with laces. Velcro's fine for little ones. Understandably not when you're 18 though!

No need for laces just yet - dc's are 6 - I have very few shoes with laces - zips and velro work fine for me. Anyway laced up school shoes always look a bit formal and stiff for primary kids who spent lots of their time running around - trainer style shoes with nice flexible soles are much more practical.
I expect learning to tie a lace is a bit like potty training - start early and it takes ages, start later and your dc gets it in no time - why make life harder there are more important battles to fight!

I have 7 and 8 yo's in my class who can't tie them up. Sorry but I have enought curriculum to teach without adding this as well. I make them wear their plimsoles for the rest of the day if they come undone. Really is a job for Mum at home.

Not at all, MrsMatey. The vast majority of 6-8y olds can learn to tie laces perfectly well. After all, we did! There was no velcro when we were kids, it was buckles or laces.

I wish there were more toddler shoes with laces or buckles. Velcro on toddler shoes it just a ploy by the shoe-manufacturers to ensure we buy more shoes than we really need. The number of times I have retrieved one shoe from the middle of a road!

I'm quite sure my kids could - I've never tried before, it's just not a skill they need to know atm....bet their a Beaver badge that will insist upon it and then I'll be eating my words.

I'm much too practical to care about teaching stuff just because that's the way we used to do it - life moves on anmd skill will get learnt if/when they are needed!

But tying knots is a useful skill. Last year on the beach ds1 was in demand by other British children to fix kite-strings and rig up badminton nets, whereas the French children he also played with needed no help at all with tying their stuff up.

We'll wait till the kids show an interest - it really is not such a big deal - it's hardly rocket science - just one of those things that when the time is right you do and it might be taught while sitting on a beach playing with kites...I just can't get too excited by it.

My 8yo ds can tie laces for his school trainers - he insisted on laces, so we said OK if you learn to tie them.

We still usually lace both him and dd1 (10) into their rugby boots as you really don't want to be tripping over a loose lace when you are flying down the wing in the mud!

Also, my 3 can all tie a tie as well - I have enough to do in the mornings. Not that they always wear it.

I could tie laces and a tie when I was 4 - had to for school!

Our school insists on lace up shoes from the first day of kindy (reception) as part of the uniform requirements, for both school shoes and trainers. Luckily DD could tie her laces by the time she went to school - we'd have been in trouble if either of my boys had started there.

YANBU my dd is 2.11 and will wear lace ups when she is able to tie them herself less hassel for me, and the teachers when she goes to school.

DD is just 2 and wears lace ups for nursery.

It hadn't occured to me that the staff might hate me Still she has to change into wellies at nursery to go outside, so she doesn't end up with soggy wet laces anyway.

I'm sure I could tie my own laces by the time I started school - must remember to teach DD too!

buy some cheepy shoes with laces and practice just at home...asdas etc... then when they can do them, you've cracked it!

My dd was taught how to tie them by a little boy who was just 4 at the time.
I was thrilled as it was something I hadn't thought of teaching (bought buckled shoes) and she grasped it quickly and easily from him.
Seem to think he taught most of the nursery as in reception the majority wore lace ups and tied the laces themselves.

DS(7) school has a velcro only rule, except for rugby boots (so far).

I can remember being able to tie my own laces in reception so would have just turned 4 (august baby). DS has SN so I haven't started teaching him yet, but if he didn't I would have started trying to teach him ready for reception.

PurplePillow Was DD just turned 3 or nearer to 4?

heyhey What are magic laces?

When DS2 started reception we were told velcro only. I was told by someone that the average age for tying laces used to be 5 but now it is 7.

at school saying velcro only, though they can't actually enforce that