Ad – gifted¦ How are your summer holidays going? Ours started later than most schools and the weeks are just flying by! I can’t believe there’s only 3 weeks left to make memories. It’s definitely on my mind now that I need to make sure that the children’s uniform is washed and labelled ready to go and their school shoes are polished. Due to a set of unfortunate circumstances last year, sorting out everything was last minute and very stressful!
You may remember that a few weeks before we broke up for the school holidays, I shared unboxing school shoes from Start-Rite. Both children chose their shoes and I loved how they are so carefully designed with the health of children’s developing feet in mind. As someone who is often between sizes, I can really that they are available in half-sizes as well as a number of width fittings.
I digress, let’s take a look at some of the fun my children have had wearing their shoes and how they’re looking a couple of months later!
Putting Them to the Test
Buy Cheap, Pay Twice
By the time we’re a fortnight into a new school year, I always see parents on Facebook complaining that their children’s school shoes are already scruffy and sometimes damaged beyond repair. However, I’ve not personally found myself in that situation. I usually find that when I buy better quality things to begin with, it costs me less in the long-run – as the idiom goes: buy cheap, pay twice! Now, don’t get me wrong, I definitely wince when I swipe my card at the till in the shoe shop each summer holidays. Kitting children out for school is expensive and my bank account has suffered from a massive blow over the last month. However, school shoes are not just part of their uniform but a piece of equipment that supports their development. We’ll go into this later in this post.
If needs be, I’d recommend buying uniform clothing second-hand (which is great for the planet as well as your budget) and putting your savings towards a great pair of shoes that fit well and will last. Investing into better quality for better value in the long-run definitely seems applicable to school shoes.
Active children need shoes that can keep up!
My two children (ages 4 and 8) definitely fit the description of active children; they barely stop! Start-Rite pride themselves on creating shoes that become outgrown not outworn and put them under some very vigorous durability testing. My energetic children have also been really putting their shoes to the test. 4 year old Reuben is growing in confidence with the “bigger kids” apparatus at the playground. His Explore shoes look so comfortable, even when he’s climbing. You can see how the flex grooved soles allow his metatarsal joints to flex naturally as he feels his way up.
Autumn has also been doing her fair share of climbing and playing in her Star Jump shoes.
See-saws are a lot of fun, but always seems to result in scuffs! When she goes on the see-saw, I know I’m going to need to get the polish out later that evening. Okay, fine, I’ll be honest. I’m likely to forget and it’ll actually be the next morning while I’m trying to encourage the children to eat their breakfast quickly and convince Reuben that crisps are not a suitable breakfast food.
The beauty of Start-Rite’s dyed-through leather is that in this hectic life, it makes it far easier to keep their school shoes looking good until they outgrow them. You can see how this freshly made scuff is still black, making it look much smarter.
Thinking about it, my children love doing all kinds of things that risk scuffing. Over the last few months, they’ve become obsessed with their scooters. They’d ride them anywhere if they could!
As I mentioned in the unboxing post, Autumn’s other favourite pastime is trying to do the best handstands and somersaults that she can. She definitely puts her shoes through their paces when she does gymnastics on the playground with her friends!
How To Care For Start-Rite School Shoes
If you take care of good-quality leather shoes, they will last longer and keep looking smart for longer too. So far, we’ve given our children’s’ shoes a bit of a polish as and when needed. They’re looking great weeks later and I’m confident that that will remain the case until they outgrow them. My daughter has had Start-Rite shoes before and they were still looking and feeling good by the end of the school year.
Taking Care of Your Child’s Feet
Start-Rite recommend that you measure children’s feet every 3-4 months to ensure they’re still wearing the correct shoe size, so that’s what I’ll be doing. With school shoes being worn for 195 days a year for at least 6 hours a day, it’s incredibly important.
Ill-fitting shoes not only feel uncomfortable, but have the potential to cause problems that could impact a child for the rest of their lives. Children’s trunk, leg and foot muscles are learning to work together and don’t finish developing until their mid-teens. Their gait (their walking pattern) also develops until around the age of 16. When a child’s gait is disrupted by ill-fitting shoes, their brain compensates for it which could cause knee and spine problems and permanently affect their gate. Therefore, shoes are something really important to get right for our children.
Parting Thoughts
Bearing in mind all of the above, I think Start-Rite shoes are a great investment that provides good value for money. Life is expensive, but I would rather spend a bit more on shoes that will benefit my children’s’ development and that I won’t need to replace (unless they grow out of them!) It’s for good reason that time and time again, I insist on good-quality leather shoes like these so they’ll be super smart and comfy all year through. All they need is a bit of TLC with some polish.
Disclosure: We received the aforementioned shoes from Start-Rite in return for an unboxing and review post. As always, all views and opinions are honest and my own.