Putting Shoes on the Right Feet (and Underwear too!)

Tips on how to get your child to put their shoes on the right feet and underwear on 'frontwards."

Shoes on the Right Feet?




Hey All,

Does anyone know a trick to help a 4 year old figure out the right shoe from the left so they can put them on by themselves?

And while we're at it, a way to help them figure out which way to put on underwear (when there is not a bow in the front)?




you could try the shoe labels from mabel's labels http://www.mabel.ca/mabel.php?n=shoe%20labels


to mark which was which.  or for shoes with laces, you could do those friendship pins with beads on safety pins, on the right or left foot.


I once saw a PSP post that someone said they wrote the first few letters of the child's name on the back of the left shoe and the rest on the back of the right, so when the shoes were in the right order, the child could read his or her name properly. That could work if your child knows letters and the spelling of his/her name. I thought that was brilliant, though I haven't tried it.


Underwear--tag in back? I've tried holding up the underwear and showing my kids how it looks bigger in the back than the front, because you have more butt in the back than the front (we tend to refer to the entire area, front and back, as "butt"--the front of your butt and the back of your butt). That amuses them, which may make it easier to remember. My older one got the hang of it. The younger doesn't put her own underpants on yet.




Hi, I always show my kids the tag on the underwear and tell them that part is in the back. Put it in front of her on the floor and show. has worked with both of my kids. GL Magda


For shoes, try writing an R and an L on them (if she knows right from left), and for underwear, you could show her how to hold them up and look at them, then put the bigger part in back.  Or just wear them backwards, of course!

Have you tried placing a tiny dot on the inner side of her shoes. Explain that the dots should be facing each other. You could also use a tiny sticker or piece of tape.

You could try writing an L and R on the bottom of the shoes and drawing a heart or other symbol on the back of the undies with perm marker.



For shoes, maybe try some fabric paint and paint an R for right and an L for left, if she knows her letters, or some other symbol like a star for one and a circle for the other.  Or you could just paint something on the right one and leave the left one blank.



For underwear, we've always told our son to look for the label - it will always be in the back.

My husband put a small ink dot on the inside of both of my daughter’s sneakers. She knew they were on the right feet if the dots were facing each other.


We have shoes withc various fasteners or things like fire trucks that go on the outside of the foot, so my eldest does it that way. But I'm wondering if you could paint one toenail with color then put a dot of the same color on the right, or left shoe? It's sort of cheating but if it helps them to move faster in the morning I don't see the harm.


For the shoes, you could show your daughter that when the shoes are the right way they are "kissing" each other because they are happy and when they are on the wrong way they "look away" from each other because they are mad.

We put a little dot of nail polish on one shoe, on the sole or inside ... somehow he got it.


We don't have bows (boys, yk) but we do have tags & pictures. Both my 6 & 3.5 year olds know the tag goes in the back...


I recently read a great idea in a paretnting magazine—break your child's
name in two and write the first half in the left shoe and the 2nd half in the
show. When the name is spelled correctly than the child has the shoes right
(no pun intended) to put them on correctly. I think this would work best with
older kids.



Till this day I remember how my dad show me how to put my shoes on properly.
Not sure if it'll work for all kids, but I thought it was great. He said when
your shoes are on properly, put your feet together and look for oval in the
middle. You should be able to stick your fingers right through. We practiced
it a little to see the difference between when it's on correctly. I hope this
is helpful. I would practice it a few times and gently remind them of this

Try putting an R and L on the respective feet in marker on the sole of the
shoe/tongue of the sneaker etc. Never did this with my kids but my mom did
for me.

Thanks for the suggestions everybody! I liked the one about the shoes "making a
circle" in the middle.
You also might want to ask your kids if they are comfortable walking with the
shoes on the wrong feet, because it's actually so awkward you end up tripping!

My son started putting his shoes on by himself a while ago, but when he puts
them on "wrong" I tell him about a guy named Albert Einstein who kept wearing
them wrong, mismatched or sometimes even different up until he became old. He
also used to stick his tongue out instead of posing for pictures...and did not
really comb his hair...we love stories about crazy old Albert!

Should I also teach him to write from left to right? So far we do it both
vertically and horizontally, and "backwards" because it helps developing skills
to write one day in Arabic and Mandarin, just in case! This way he has fun, and
can write a lot of words and has even developed his own signature (that can be
read both ways!).

Of course we all do our best to teach our children to distinguish between right
and ...wrong...mmm ...left!!!! But don't forget the importance of
creativity!!!!!! :-)


Similar to this strategy we use the "eye" or a "butterfly" trick. If you put
the shoes together and they look like an eye, that is the correct way but if
they look like butterfly wings, than they are incorrect. For a little while it
was quite a game, and you may have to put up with "Look mommy, a butterfly that
is the WRONG way to put on my shoes, now it's an EYE." Fortunately, that wore
off after a few weeks and the trick stuck. On the underwear front we use the
good ole', the tag is in the back, and the front is thinner method. No where
near as much fun as the eye/butterfly strategy, but it seems to work!