Hi moms,
My 4 year old twins are independent enough to dress themselves and even put their own shoes on, but they almost always put their shoes on the wrong feet. I've tried telling them that when they look down they should see their toes touching, but that doesn't seem to help. Any ideas or tricks on how to teach them how to put their shoes on the correct feet. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
Hi M.:
A red dot on the inside of the right shoe,where they can see it when they pick it up. We had a little saying...""Red Is Right"
To help my kids learn left and right, I showed them that their left hand forms an L when you extend the pointer finger straight up, point the thumb out to the side and fold down the remaining three fingers. Then put a small L inside left shoe. I would also try to buy shoes that only had pictures, buckles or other markings on the outside of the shoes.
Put a colored dot on the right hand and then inside the right shoe, and a different colored on the left hand and shoe. Or you can polish their nails on color or so forth, but make the left not the same color as the right. I know this works with the shoes, but not sure what else you can make this work with =]. I did it for my 4 year and he gets it now, and I am teaching it to my 3 year how to do this now. Good luck and I am anxious to see what other responses and ideas you get on this =]
Depending on the shoes, often the picture is on the outside of the foot. I taught my kids that the Princesses go on the outside so everyone can see them. :) If its a shoes with a strap, I also show how the strap goes to the outside of the foot. It seemed to work better than looking at the shape of the toes.
With my five year olds I started the left/right discussion while driving them in the car. Now we are turning left, now we are turning right...and talked to them about directions which started at about 3.5 or four years old. They now give ME directions to get to the store or get back home - which means I have just given the world a couple of very annoying back seat drivers! LOL! Anyway, with the shoes they definitely understand if they FEEL right or if the feel wrong on their feet. I don't use right or left but have them look at the instep on the shoe to gauge whether or not it's the right shoe.
Hi
If you are creative you could draw a piture on the shoes (like 2 halves of a caterpillar) and have them make the complete picture when the shoes are on the right feet.
Good luck
