Make 'em tap

Tape quarters or washers to your child’s shoes for homemade tap shoes

When fellow parenting blogger and amateur fashion designer Mike posted about tap dancing with his daughter Emme, I knew Julian and I had to try it.

Mike gives Charlene credit, and she gives someone else credit, but it doesn’t really matter as long as Julian gives ME credit for the idea of taping quarters to one’s shoes in order to convert them into instant tap shoes. And if you take action on this activity, your preschooler will give you credit.

Julian and I used blue painter’s tape on his Ugg-style boots. As soon as he realized the pleasing sound he could make by dancing spastically rhythmically on the hardwood floors, he began channeling Gene Kelly, who, by the way, he has never heard of. He asked me for a top hat and a cane. I swear, this kid is destined for the theatre.

With my umbrella as a cane and his dad’s derby hat on his head, he went about his tap-dancing way, clicking all over the house for the rest of the evening. I’m sure a young toddler would be intrigued by this opportunity to make noise as well.

I guess he told his teacher Steve about his new hobby. This morning when we arrived at school, his teacher Steve, a straight man who often wears a pink tutu over his cargo shorts just to screw with the rigid gender rules that five year olds impose on the world, offered him a set of washers to tape to his shoes. (See photo above.) Two washers on each shoe, Vans this time, took the tapping to a new level.

Try it yourself.

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Whitney

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents.