Tieing a bow

[mumofone]

Another one(!), what age do children generally learn how to tie a bow? Any good ideas on teaching this?

[FloraDora]

I love that your posts make me think and reflect!

Like analogue clock faces tying bows seem to be a dying skill in the world of Velcro, clarks doodle buckles, and tucking your laces inside without tying!

It isn't an age thing as it depends how proficient their finer motor skills are and their exposure to purposes for tying bows.

Even hair bows are going out of fashion for bobbles with Elsa and Anna , Olaf and Peppa pig plastic pictures attached. Bows come pre tied on clips.

My oldest wore an elasticated bow tie to his last formal black and white tie do and had an untied one in his pocket....once the evening was in full swing he ' untied' his bow tie ( took it off and swapped it for the untied one which just sat under his collar hanging down) .

I wear a scarf every day - sometimes wrapped close to my neck, often hanging down loose - one little one loves to tie the loose one into a knot - she's 3 - we have a different fastening board by melissa and Doug, a wooden shoe with laces, bows and ribbons in loose materials and hairdressing, string and rope in indoor and outdoor construction and den play where they get chance to play with knotting...she never goes near these.
My youngest was Velcro boy, before the just tuck them in trainer look ( a fashion which I am sure came about because tying them is too difficult!) In exasperation of his inability to want to do the chase the rabbit thing through the hole I showed him how to make a loop in each hand and then tie in a knot - to this day he still does this...I took a photo on his graduation day, in full resplendent 'look how great a mind I have robes ' tying his expensive Italian shoes ( grandmother gift ...for interviews) using this method!!

[blue bear]

I look after 14 children not one of them has lace up shoes, the children range from 18 months to twelve years. Years ago I used to reach tying shoe laces as part of the getting ready for school, it's been a few years since I last taught shoe tying to a mindee

[Maza]

My DD, (6 and a half) learnt a couple of weeks ago. She could have probably learnt a bit earlier as she has very good fine motor skills but I kept putting off teaching her because I didn't think I had the patience. She noticed another of her friends doing it really easily (friend just 6) and came home and begged us to teach her. She has no lace up shoes and so DH taught her using a ribbon around his leg! She then moved on to tying bows around the necks of her soft toys.

[Simona]

Look for a book called ' Tie your shoe laces' ...at the front there are laces children can experiment on tying !

[mama2three]

Look for a book called ' Tie your shoe laces' ...at the front there are laces children can experiment on tying !

or make your own.
draw a shoe / trainer , get the child to colour and decorate it
laminate and cut out
hole punch holes for the laces
thread laces..

[hectors house]

My nephew had a friend staying over last week when I was visiting - his friend was 12 and has only recently learnt to tie his laces!

[JCrakers]

My own two children were around 9-10yrs which is slightly embarrassing but that's because school shoes and trainers are Velcro nowadays so no need or practice.

I would say that children are generally older in tying laces nowadays compared to when I was a girl. In the 70-80's trainers had laces so we had to tie them or practice and practice.