Skip to main content

How to teach your child to tie shoes using YouTube videos

girl showing a friend how to tie her shoes
Allen Mas / Pexels

Adults don’t think twice about tying shoes and you probably don’t even remember how you learned. Was it something about bunny ears and popping into a house? Learning to tie shoes is a big milestone for kids, albeit a tough one. Tying shoes can be frustrating for kids and for the parents trying to teach them. The classic bunny ear rhyme doesn’t work for all kids and neither do songs or poems. So, how do you help a child tie shoes?

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Moderate

Duration

1 hour

What You Need

  • Child's show with laces

  • Smartphone, computer, laptop, or iPad

  • YouTube

While it may be tempting to avoid teaching kids to tie shoes, it has to happen sooner or later because you can’t use velcro shoes forever. A great way to help your kids master this all-important skill is to turn to YouTube. Of course, there are YouTube videos for learning to tie shoes. There are YouTube videos for just about anything and kids love YouTube. Putting the two together can be a win-win situation especially if your child learns to tie.

parent teaching a child how to tie shoes
Keira Burton / Pexels

How to use YouTube to help your child learn to tie

If you've tried the bunny ear method to teach your child how to tie shoes and it's still a work in process, YouTube is a surprisingly helpful option. There isn't a shortage of YouTube videos on shoe tying and some of them just might be the trick to finding the right method that clicks with your child.

Step 1: Demonstrate the shoe tying process step-by-step for your child.

Step 2: Have them try. If the process continues to be difficult, stop. Stressing your child out with the mechanics only raises the frustration level.

Step 3: Set the shoe aside and grab a smartphone or whatever device you watch YouTube videos on.

Step 4: Choose a YouTube video on shoe tying and watch with your child. We have five fabulous ones to try below.

Step 5: Watch your child's reaction to see if there's a connection.

Step 6: If so, re-watch the video at least three times.

Step 7: Have your child try the method using his or her shoe. Pause and rewind the video if needed.

Step 8: Practice. Even if the light bulb goes on and your child now understands the process, it will still take time to master the technique. Have them continue to practice. Five minutes a day is ideal.

Step 9: Try not to stress. Shoe tying — even with a YouTube hack leading the way — will take time to master. Just continue to be positive and encouraging. Stressing yourself out only frustrates your child.

Child Tying Their Shoe
Shutterstock

The best YouTube videos to teach kids how to tie shoes

If other methods have tried and failed, grab the smartphone and pull up YouTube. Here are some shoe tying that just might do the trick:

How To Tie Your Shoes

If your child is almost there with mastering shoe tying, give this short, five-step instructional video from a try. The instructions are simple and demonstrated by a young child. This straightforward video just may do the trick for a child who is on the cusp of learning to tie.

The Kidsplainer

Frustrated kids trying to learn how to tie their shoes will definitely relate to this. In this three minute plus YouTube video, the Kidsplainer gives step-by-step instructions to help kids tie their shoes. Kids can follow and practice along with the Kidsplainer are he goes through the directions. This is also a useful video for kids super close to learning how to tie.

The Easiest Way To Tie Shoes

This short YouTube video claims to be the easiest way to teach kiddos how to tie shoes. This is a great shoe-tying hack for kids who can’t quite master those bunny ears. UnstoppableMother demonstrates first but then brings her son in to show just how quickly kids can pick up the trick.

Cool Shoe-tying Trick

This YouTube video says it has the “coolest shoe-tying trick ever” and it really does. Five-year-old Colton shows off a shoe-tying hack he picked up from his buddy River. This unique shoe tying trick has kids putting the shoelace end into the top lace hole to make a loop before joining the two together by making the traditional X and pulling through. To double knot, all kids have to do is repeat the process. When they’re finished, kids just need to pull the lace out of each lace hole.

How to Tie Shoes From an OT Perspective

This has a longer shoe-tying video that shows parents how to teach kids how to tie and gives insight into the research behind it. The video also helps parents by showing them exactly how to show a child, including where to sit when giving instructions. Mister OT suggests using two different colored shoelaces as well as laces that have different textures. The different colors and textures make it easier for kids to tell the difference between the laces and where they need to go. Mister OT also talks about the importance of using a video component in addition to parent instruction especially for kids who are struggling with the shoe tying concept or have special needs.

As an adult, you don’t really think about tying your shoes. It is just something you do. Most of us have blocked out the learning process and whether or not it was frustrating to you as a kid. For many kids, learning to tie shoes is quite hard. Sometimes it’s equally as hard for parents to teach because they don’t understand why the child is having such a difficult time when others seem to pick up on it so easily. YouTube shoe tying videos are another way to help kids learn to tie. Like Mister OT says in his shoe tying video, some kids just need that video component to learn to tie. If your child is struggling to learn to tie, take a look at these shoe tying videos on YouTube. Two offer simple shoe tying hacks that are great for the struggling child. If your child is almost there, watching a YouTube video from the Kidsplainer or the Colorado Children’s Hospital may be just the ticket to mastering this all-important skill.

Dawn Miller
Dawn Miller began her professional life as an elementary school teacher before returning to her first love, writing. In…
How to teach your 5-year-old kindness
choose kindness

World Kindness Day has been celebrated internationally since 1998. It came out of the World Kindness Movement, and its purpose is to encourage people to be kind to one another as well as themselves and the planet. As parents, we want our children to be kind, and not just on World Kindness Day in November. Kindness, like most behaviors, is learned, but in many ways, kindness is an abstract concept coming in many forms. Being friendly to a stranger is kind. Holding a door open for someone is an act of kindness, as is giving up a seat on the subway to a senior citizen. Making a card for a soldier stationed overseas is an act of kindness, and so is doing a chore for a sibling. While acts of kindness may be easy for adults, to a 5-year-old, kindness is just a word. Since we want our children to understand kindness and be kind people, how do you explain the concept of kindness?

What is kindness for kids?
If you look up kindness in the dictionary, the word is defined as being friendly, generous, and considerate to others. While kindness can mean different things to people, a large part of being kind is not expecting anything in return. Explaining kindness to kids, though, can be challenging especially when kindness is sometimes defined as the act of being kind. You can almost hear a class of kindergarteners going "huh?" In other words, kindness is thinking about other people, whether it's their feelings or wanting to extend a helping hand. Kindness is contagious. Unlike sickness, kindness is a bug you want to catch and pay forward to others.

Read more
6 educational YouTubers your tween will love
girl watching videos

Just about every parent these days struggles with getting their tweens off their phones and engaged with the real world. However, just because you have to set some clear boundaries about how much screen time is too much screen time, don’t make the mistake of assuming all screen time is bad. There are plenty of amazing resources out there online that can help your child learn more about the world around them, whatever their favorite educational topics happen to be. And no, we’re not talking about online scholarly articles or Wiki pages — educational content can be found on the favorite social platforms your child already knows and loves, such as YouTube. 

So, the next time your tween reaches for their phone and turns on a tech review or unboxing, try introducing them to one of these 6 educational YouTubers for tweens instead. 
Mike Likes Science 
Mike Likes Science is a fun, educational channel geared at tweens and teens that combines comedy with music to teach kids about everything from coding to the Internet of Things to Black scientists in history to dinosaurs. Math, space, microscopic face mites — it’s all up for grabs. Plus, Mike Likes Science offers a huge backlog of content, so if your tween is just now discovering the channel, they’ll have plenty of videos to watch.
Physics Girl
We could probably all agree that the more role models young girls can find in STEM fields, the better. Physics Girl provides just that — loads of cool content featuring MIT physicist Dianna Cowern as the host. Content ranges from 101-style physics introductions (perfect for when your tween is studying for that big, upcoming science test that they’ve been ignoring for the last few weeks) to quick question explainers to special episodes featuring guests like Bill Nye. 

Read more
4 toddler shoes that hold up to active kids
A toddler wearing sneakers outside on concrete

From toys to clothes, it’s no secret that toddlers are tough on their stuff. Whether it be too many trips through the sandbox or a drastic fabric color change, those tiny tots always seem to find ways to test the limits of all textiles and materials. Toddler parents often find themselves seeking out more durable brands of clothing and blends of fabrics to hold up to the daily wear and tear their children can have on items.

If your tiny tot is running through shoes faster than Usain Bolt, then we’d like to suggest a few top-notch, well-made, and quality everyday-wear style of shoe for your toddlers.
Stride Rite 360 Athletic Running Shoes
From the brand you know, love, and have come to depend on for high-quality and well-built children’s shoes, we bring you Stride Rite’s 360 Unisex Athletic Running Shoes. This style of shoe is considered unisex, although it is available in two color options, one for girls and the other for boys. The durable and synthetic soles will hold up to your little one’s busy days of comings and goings. These shoes are not only blissfully machine washable, but they also light up!

Read more