Printable Shoe Lacing Cards

How long does it take you to get you and your kids out of the house? What happens when your child can’t find the right shoe? Right? It’s always around until you need to be somewhere, then it just disappears and of course, you can never leave on time and then you’re late. You’ll love these printable shoe lacing cards to teach your kids to tie their shoes.

Love these? You’ll enjoy my other printable lacing cards for kids.

Shoes can be a source of pain for parents who have an appointment to get to. What happens when they start wearing laces?

Tying your shoes is an important life skills kids need to learn, but it doesn’t mean they can’t have fun while learning how.

I swear, I still have to tell my teen to tie his shoelaces because he’d rather leave them to drag on the floor through the mud and dirt than to bend down and tie them. Not to mention the fact that he may trip over them.

Help your kids become a pro at lacing and tying up their shoelaces with these printable shoe lacing cards.

Want to have fun with shoes? Enter It’s Shoe Time! by Bryan Collier; it makes mismatched shoes fun and silly, and will get your kids on board with tying their own shoelaces.

It’s Shoe Time! is the newest addition to the Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! series, in which Mo Willems’ beloved Elephant & Piggie introduces readers to new books and authors.

It’s Shoe Time!

Disclosure: I am part of the Mo Willems brand ambassador program with Disney-Hyperion and I received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

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What age should a child be able to tie their shoes?

They need to have the fine motor skills required to manipulate the shoelaces or they ll just get frustrated. I like to relate the loops of shoelaces as bunny ears and that always seems to make it more fun. Make two bunny ears, and on bunny ear goes around and into the hole, and then it s pulled tight.

Some children can tie their own shoes by the time they are three years old while others may need help until they reach adolescence. The age of the child is not the only factor in this decision.

For example, if a child has disabilities and struggles with fine motor skills, their parents may choose to wait until they are older. Some parents will wait until their child is walking and using the stairs before they start to tie their shoes. The decision should be based on what is best for the individual child.

If your child is going to school and you have shoes with laces, you’ll want to help your child practice, generally around 4 or 5 is a wonderful time to get started.

What are lacing cards?

Lacing cards are cards that have a different number of holes per card, which are designed to be strung together in order to create a pattern.

What makes lacing cards special for kids?

Lacing cards are special because they help teach children the basic skills that will be required to learn how to tie a shoe.

The printable shoelace cards are a fun way for kids to work on so many skills: manipulating string with dexterity, precision in fine motor movements, the pincer grasp to pinch and hold the string, bilateral coordination, and eye-hand coordination.

They also promote focus as well as creativity and problem-solving skills.

Shoe Lacing Cards Supplies

Paper or cardstock
Laminator
One hole punch
Shoe laces or string

This is the HP color inkjet printer that I use for all of my printables and I save money on ink by using their HP Instant Ink program.

Hp Officejet Pro All in One Printer-Black – Model 8710 – HEOJ8710-Desktop Printer Scotch Thermal Laminator Combo Pack, Includes 20 Letter-Size Laminating Pouches, Holds Sheets up to 8.9 McGill 2

Print out the lacing cards onto paper or cardstock, laminate them to make them durable, and use the one-hole punch to punch holes into the shoes where the laces would go. Find some old shoelaces or string to use to lace them up.

I like shoelaces because they have the tapered end which makes it easy for little hands to lace them through the holes.

We received a copy of It’s Shoe Time! along with shoelaces and wild-colored, mismatched socks. My daughter loved these, and they went great with the books!