Plan Toys Tie-Up shoe from The Toadstool: A review

We've had a flurry of Plan Toys reviews to do lately with these lovely toys from The Toadstool and I have to say just want an absolute pleasure it is when you find toys that your children love to play with and that, as a parent, you find to be educational and have real learning value.

This Plan Toys Tie-Up Shoe from The Toadstool is exactly that - both fun to play with AND educational. By educational I mean that it can help children learn a really valuable practical life skill by helping them to learn how to lace-up their own shoes. It also aids development by encouraging those fine motor skills as children practise threading and tying the laces.

Tying laces has got to be one of those trickier skills for children to learn and the age at which they are able to do so seems to vary greatly from child to child. I remember seeing a child aged 3 confidently tie their laces, whilst my eldest, now aged 9, is still unable to. He does have some coordination difficulties linked to his Aspergers but I still believe that like a lot of things, children learn to tie shoe laces at different ages depending on their stage of learning.

Since 7 year old D started school, he has been asking for lace-up trainers for P.E. and so we recently bought him a pair. But before he can take them into school for P.E. he needs to become confident with tying laces and that's where this Plan Toys tie-up shoe has really come into its own.

D has practised using the toy and then transferred those skills to his real shoes. He is not fully there yet, but I think with a little more practise, he will soon be wearing his new trainers for P.E.

And just like learning to ride a bike, we found that when D was ready to learn to ride, it helped give his big brother the motivation to learn too. So I have a feeling the same will happen with tying shoe laces.

The tie-up shoe is designed for children aged 3 and over. I hope you will see that it can actually be used to help children much older than this too.

Not wanting to be left out of all the shoe-tying excitement, I found Miss T doing this the other day.

She had clearly recognised this item as a shoe and was trying to put it on! It did make me giggle!

One of the things I loved about this toy is that even before children are ready to learn to tie laces, they could use this toy to practise threading to develop those all important fine motor skills. The lace is completely removable, and the fabric loops on the wooden shoe are big enough for a child to be able to thread the lace through.

Like the other plan toys we have been enjoying so much, this shoe is well made and sturdy. It is small enough for a child to hold and with three loops on either side it won't seem overwhelming to them. 

Disclosure: We won this product from The Toadstool and have chosen to write this review about it. All opinions are our own. Please see The Toadstool for current pricing information.