How many time have you bent down to tie your child's shoelaces?

This task is usually mastered between the ages of three to five.

"Origami and Tying Shoelaces seem to play a very important role in promoting the executive function in young children.

To tie shoelaces, or to fold a piece of paper into a bird, one needs to identify the material, have a goal or an image of the end product, and then take the correct steps needed to implement what is in one's mind. In early childhood, a youngster's struggle to learn to tie shoelaces properly stimulates such mental activities as the operation of working memory and the control of emotions, motivations and state of arousal.

Japanese children usually learn the skills of making origami and tying shoelaces at about the same stage of childhood. These skills, however, differ considerably in the range of designs to be mastered. The shapes of shoelaces knots are very limited; by contrast, origami has numerous variations in design.

It might be said, therefore, that mastery of origami more effectively promote the fluency of executive function in terms of text comprehension and motor performance of young children's fingers."

Velcro shoes and elastic "no lace" laces may be fun for your kids, but they'll have to learn how to tie their shoes eventually if they are to compete in school sports.

Also, basic knot and bow tying is a good fine motor skill to master.