Review and Giveaway: Tie Buddies

I remember very clearly how we taught our oldest daughter to tie her shoes. She had been begging and pleading for a pair of ‘tie’ shoes after only ever wearing velcro (for the easy-to-put-on factor, of course) ones. So we made a deal – I would buy her next pair of shoes with laces, if she could learn to tie them by herself. She was in kindergarten, and after only a few unsuccessful attempts, she figured out the concept and was rewarded with her very first pair of ‘tie’ shoes.

I also remember how we taught our second daughter to tie her shoes – we didn’t. Her big sister did.    But even though she understood the concept and how to tie them, the actual mechanics of getting the laces to behave and pulled tightly enough to stay tied have been something we struggled with for the year that she wore her ‘tie’ shoes. I finally grew tired of being asked over and over to tie them for her, and bought her a pair of slip-on tennis shoes.

I only wish we’d known about Tie Buddies^TM!

What they are:

Tie Buddies^TM are simple little plastic tabs that slide on a child’s shoelaces and take the difficulty out of tying their shoes. Invented by a mom of two who struggled with the same eternal issue of teaching her kids to tie their own shoes, Tie Buddies use cute characters to help illustrate to kids which lace goes where:

The key was to create cool characters and interactive stories that help the child learn and retain the process and as well as eliminating the frustrating ‘bunny ears or loops’ that just confuse children as they learn.

Thanks to the Family Review Network, we received a pair of pink ‘fairy’ Tie Buddies to try out.

Here’s my our take on them:

What a simple, yet ingenious idea! I so wish these had been around when teaching my older girls to tie – even though they both picked up the concept fairly quickly, it’s always hard for small fingers to get the laces to go where they need to in order to tie them well enough to stay tied. And to accomplish this quickly enough so as to not drive a parent (or teacher) bonkers. 

With both of my girls now wearing slip-on shoes, we pulled out the pair of tennis shoes that my 6-year-old just outgrew – the same ones that I’ve tied many times over the past months. It was extremely easy to slip the Tie Buddies on, and both girls had the shoes tied in a matter of seconds.

I can see these not only being a learning tool to help show kids how to tie their shoes, but also a way to help them tie them quickly and effectively until they truly have the fine motor control that it takes to do so themselves. Both of my girls tied these shoes faster and much tighter with the Tie Buddies than they do on their own, which would prevent a lot of loose laces, re-ties and possible falls. And not only are they useful, but with the different colors and characters, they’re a fun accessory to any kid’s shoes.

How easy are these to use?  Here’s my 8-year-old demonstrating:

The bottom line:

I think that the best gift any parent can give their child’s teacher is to put a pair of Tie Buddies^TM on their child’s shoes. I can only imagine how many times a day teachers have to re-tie kids’ shoes, but I know that they would be thrilled to have even a little of that burden lifted. Even my 6-year-old tells me that she is growing tired of helping tie her classmates’ shoes! Tie Buddies are so quick and easy – and effective, they should be on every kid’s laces.

Where can you find them?:

You can purchase sets of Tie Buddies directly from their website at http://shop.tiebuddies.com for $7.95 a pair. They are also available on Amazon.  There are two designs currently available (fairies and racecars) but more will be coming soon.

Would you like to try them?:

Courtesy of Tie Buddies^TM and the Family Review Network, I have the opportunity to give away a pair of Tie Buddies^TM to a lucky reader! If you need these for your child’s shoes or to give as a gift, here are the rules:

1. Enter by leaving a comment here to tell me how old your children were when they learned to tie their shoes (or any fun ‘shoe tying’ stories you might have). Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
2. The contest will run until Monday, April 20th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY.Fetch. US entries only, please.
3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEYWinners to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
4. If you’d like extra entries, you can:

• Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
• Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post and to Tie Buddies^TM, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
• Either Twitter about, ‘Stumble’, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site you chose (one extra entry per method).

So that’s a total of 7 comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options.

Good luck! 

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #28 as the winner:

Congratulations to Cori Westphal (no blog) who said, “My daughter just recently learned to tie her shoes. She had just turned 6. I now have a very jealous and very frustrated 5 year old boy who really wants to keep up with his sister. I’d love to get the Race Car ones for him!“! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.

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