Will You Tie My Shoe?

Just finished a craft project that my daughter Lisa had requested.  Lisa is a kindergarten teacher and she is gearing up for another year to start.  She says that all day long she hears "Mrs. Miller, will you tie my shoe? So this year she wants something to help them learn to do it themselves.  She asked if I could make something and this is what I came up with:

I got on the internet and printed off a simple shoe shape.

Then I drew in a sneaker design (Red):

I looked around John's scrap wood pile and found 2 nice pieces that I wanted to use.  Using the plain simple pattern, I was able to trace out 4 shoes on the wood.

At this point John was nosing around wanting to know what I was using "his" wood for, so I asked him if he wanted to cut them out?  I can use a saw, but thought if he will do it, why not?  So as he got each one cut out, I drilled the holes for the laces.

Then I gathered supplies, craft paint, paint markers, spray sealer and laces:

Keeping my sneaker pattern in mind, I started to paint.  I wanted to make 2 that were more boyish and 2 that were more girly. 

After the paint was dry, I sprayed them with a sealer and added the laces.

I think they turned out pretty good.  I hope Lisa and the kids like them!