There are No Tie-Up Shoes for Kids

Oliver has finally outgrown his size 7 shoes. He has sandals that still fit him, but those won't do for long! Last week, I took him to Target to pick out some shoes. The only requirements I had were that they were comfortable, fit well, and could lace-up. He's going to be 4, and I figured that's a good age to teach him to tie shoes.

Right?

Apparently, the retail market doesn't agree with me. I took him to Target. Most of the shoes were sold out in his size (back to school and all). It struck me as odd that I didn't see any tie-up shoes on display, though. All of the shoes were either velcro, no-lace, or fake laces (elastic bands that look like laces).

I went online to Target after I got back. I am not lying when I say there are *no* toddler boy's shoes that tie-up. I went to the kid's shoes just to see. Would you believe there was only one pair? They were uncomfortable-looking oxfords. Does that seem weird to other parents? Not only can toddlers not get lace-up shoes, but neither can kids? I went to Old Navy's website and Babies R Us website. I found one or two pairs of dress shoes that laced up, but no sneakers.

OK, I then figured Amazon.com was the way to go. They sell lots of brands! They couldn't fail me! Right? Wrong! Unless I wanted to spend $100 on a pair of Air Jordans, I couldn't get Oliver lace-up shoes there either. What the heck!?

Frustrated, I sought out other parents' opinions on Facebook. I had 3 friends reply, and they all complained about the same thing. One said she never found her kids lace-up shoes, so she made a toy shoe by punching holes in a box for them to learn on. Another said she had to finally go to a sporting goods store and spend good money on a pair of basketball shoes to get some that would tie up. Another said her son didn't get to learn how to tie his shoes until almost seven years old because he never had tie-up shoes, in spite of her wanting them for him.

I thought I was going to have to go to a sporting goods store, as my friend had, but I decided to check a few more places before resigning myself to that costly fate. I finally found a pair at JC Penney. They have cute Chuck Taylors with real laces. The laces look very short, and the photos shoe the laces knotted at the sides instead of tied. They're also listed as "slip on," which has me a little worried. I might have to cut off the short laces and make a stop at a shoe store to pick up extra laces, but at least they will work!

Jiminy! Finding a pair of lace-up shoes was all but impossible! Have any of you gone through this? Did you give up? Break the bank?

Pre-School Activity: Matching Shoes

After reading an organizational activity on Crafting Play, I felt inspired to come up with a similar activity. The mom was organizing her shoes. She printed photos of each pair to put on the front of her shoe boxes in order to locate them easily. Her toddler matched her shoes to the corresponding photos for her. It looked like something Oliver would enjoy!

I adapted the activity to our needs and made it a game. I decided to skip the photo printing and just have him match the shoes to each other.

I used one of my storage cubes and tossed six pairs of shoes in there.

In order to introduce Oliver to the game, I asked him to first select a shoe. When he had one in his hands, I asked him to find the other one.

When he grabbed the matching shoe, I cheered him on and told him he did a good job finding the pair. Pretty soon, he was matching up pairs as fast as he could grab them and lining them up.

Jo enjoyed grabbing the matched pairs and sticking them on her hands.

Oliver enjoyed finding the matching shoes. I think it's a good introduction to games. Oliver's going to get his first game for Christmas, so I think this might help him understand that games have some sort of objective to them.

What fun! Next, maybe I'll teach him to match socks. Now that would be helpful! ;-)

Tuesday Run

Today, I did 1.5 miles on the treadmill. I feel really good, because I know I could have definitely gone longer. My mom bought me these really nice new running shoes that seem to help my knees. However, I definitely need to break them in. At about the one mile mark, my two big toes started going numb, so I think the shoes might be just slightly too narrow. I'll run in them a mile at a time for a while to get them broken in a bit more.

I walked the first .05 miles and the last .05 miles today at a minute a piece. So, although I did 1.5 miles in 18.5 minutes, I ran 1.4 miles at 16.5 minutes... I'm under the 12 minute mile mark!

Hurray for the accomplishment there. I'm thinking I might be able to hit my highest goal of 40 minutes at the Cherry Creek Sneak. That would be awesome!

Less than a week away!

P.S. Macy's still sucks ;-)