Our kindergarten asked that kids wear lace-up shoes so that they got practice tying shoes.

DS6 is such a highly emotional perfectionist that shoe-tying was a source of many tears this past spring. I held firm. He needed to *try* to tie them every day (assuming we weren't in a hurry). If he made a good-faith effort and still couldn't do it, then I would help him.

He's quite good at it now. smile The biggest problem for him was that he likes to have his shoes tied very tightly, and a new shoe-tyer simply can't get the laces that tight. There were times when he would tie them just fine but would be unhappy with how loose they were, and then I would redo them for him, showing him how I got them to be tight. That was just fine with me: he got the practice that he needed and that's all I cared about. I think the fact that I was willing to redo them for him also helped him to get past his perfectionism about it. He wasn't going to be stuck with his imperfect tying if he didn't want to be.

I almost never tie his shoes for him anymore. He does prefer flip-flops, but he ties his own shoes when tennies are needed.

Kriston