Tuesday, May 20, 2014

EZLeaps Shoe Tying Tool Review

Today our own Mama Lisa reviews a product that she received for free to review to help her girls learn to tie their shoes. The views and experiences here are her own.



Pixy has been after me to teach her to tie her shoes. Honestly, I hated when I had to learn because it was tough! I attended private Catholic school and they needed those laces done a certain way. Le sigh!! Enter EZLeaps Shoe Tying Tool!!!

EZ Leaps Shoe Tying Tool

Aren't they cute?! I loved the colorful prints, which will make it easy to identify for a child. The prints do come in sports themes, horses, animals...in short, every theme that children like. The tools have a spot on the back for your child's name and date, so you can remember when they first tied their shoes. They also come equipped with a hole on the upper left corner to stick a carabiner clip in, so they can take it to school with them! Recipe for success, huh? Now, at first glance they look delicate but they are made for hearty use and can bend with the movements of the laces, in order to make a perfect tying job each time. In addition, EZ Leaps has a video tutorial that you can watch with your child in order to get the steps right! Easy peasy.

Seems we have success on sunny days here when trying new things so, here is what we did:


Pixy is using my kicks because she needs to strengthen up her hands (we play copious amounts of Operation to get those fine motor skills going). The grin is indicative of how proud this tool is making her feel. It really does drive home the fact that they are doing it by themselves!


What a grin!


Pixy got the bunny ears going on her own. She needed a reminder to keep them pinched tight for her next step. No frustration noted in her, she really was trying hard to concentrate and do it.

Bunny ears

This was probably the hardest part! Pixy has been practicing and has been getting better and better, but making the knot was a little difficult. No frustration noted though. She started squealing that she got it!


The knot

Here's the final step! Pull up the tool and the laces with a perfect tie go right through. She did it!! Pixy did twenty some laps around the backyard squealing because she did it with minimal help. She was so proud she could bust!

Finished!

Tah-dah!!!

 As a mama, I have been having fun with these lessons. Not frustrating, a couple minutes practice each time. What's not to love? I also think that this tool will be helpful for Banshee when she requests to tie her own shoes. We're all for that!  Pretty soon, Pixy won't ask me for help with tying her shoes and will feel independent. We love strong independent chicks here...although, we're a little sad that growing up is happening faster and faster every day. Notice her tooth gap there? Sigh!


Good luck and if you visit the EZ Leaps website for more shoe-tying goodness (they make a  'stop thumb sucking' tool too called Thumbkin), tell them the MATHs sent you!!

Do you have questions about how it works? Learn more about the product and how it was developed here from founder Eileen Sloan and on their blog.

Happy shoe tying everyone!