Teach Your Child the Right Way to Tie their Shoelaces

Did you know there are 17 ways to tie a shoelace? Me neither. But I was fascinated by this little bit of information. I’ve been trying to teach my 5 year old the “standard shoelace method” but I’ve decided to change to the "bunny ear method” because it’s easier. In my quest for more information, I stumbled across Ian’s Shoelace Site and was fascinated to learn there is an entire website designated to shoelaces! As I was perusing the site this little piece of information popped out and changed my whole world.

Kids find it easier to learn this "Two Loop Shoelace Knot"(aka Bunny Ear method) because it's really the same as tying the starting knot except that the ends are formed into loops. However, if the loops are tied into a bow in exactly the same way as the loose ends were tied into a starting knot, the result will be an un-balanced "Granny Knot", which comes undone more easily. In other words, if you tie your starting knot by wrapping the left end over the right end and through, then tie this finishing bow by also wrapping the left loop over the right loop and through, you'll invariably find that your shoelaces keep coming undone.

He goes on to say more about the “Granny Knot”

1. It's caused when the starting knot & finishing bow don't "balance" each other.

2. It can be spotted by the tendency of the bow to sit crooked (ie. heel to toe).

3. It's fixed by reversing one stage of the knot, most easily the starting knot.

Huh?

Now I don’t do the bunny ear method, I just do the standard shoelace knot BUT my shoelaces are always coming undone! Even with double knotting. So I thought to myself, “Have I been tying my shoes wrong my entire life?” Sure enough, I glanced back at my running shoe sitting on the floor and plain as day was my abnormal knot. It was sweetly pointing north and south instead of east and west.

It seems that “Shoelace knots are usually tied in two stages: A Starting Knot followed by a Finishing Bow. Each of these stages "twists" the shoelaces slightly, so it's important that the two stages be tied in opposite directions in order to cancel out each other's twists.

If you’ve been tying your shoelaces wrong, just remember you were either taught wrong or you interpreted it wrongly at the tender age of 5 or 6. Now that you know better, you can teach your child the correct way! This little rhyme should help.

Right over left, left over right,
Makes a knot both tidy and tight.

Now having said that, I did succeed in teaching my girl how to tie her shoelaces but she wouldn’t reverse the way in which she did the starting knot or the finishing knot. All her knots were “Granny Knots”! When I mentioned this, she fell out laughing and giggled for a good fifteen minutes. Every time she got quiet it just bubbled up out of her. “Granny knot! Ha ha ha!” It seems that it doesn’t bother her as much as it did me!

Sheila Cason, MD