Are Your Kids Struggling to Tie Their Shoes? Teach Them the Cheerio Method

When kids don't know how to tie their own shoes, getting them out the door is a struggle. But parents don't have to choose between tying their children's shoes for them every morning or converting to Velcro. According to Lifehacker, there's an alternative technique that makes life easier for kids who struggle to how to tie their shoes. Instead of using the bunny-ear or bow methods, show your kids the super-simple Cheerio trick, which you can see in the tutorial video below.

First, have your child cross one shoelace over the other and tighten as they typically would when starting to tie their shoes. Next, instead of making two loops, tell them to make a knot but stop short of tightening it all the way. This should leave them with a small, Cheerio-sized hole—hence the name. From there, they can finish the job by poking the ends of the laces through the hole one at a time, then pulling the resulting bunny ears to finish the knot.

Though it's more time-consuming than the traditional way of tying shoes, the Cheerio method doesn't require using both hands at the same time, making it a more approachable option for kids still developing their hand-eye coordination.

The Cheerio method isn't the only alternative shoe-tying technique. More advanced users can teach themselves to tie their laces with one hand, as demonstrated by Paralympian Megan Absten here.