… in 15 minutes or less.
She’s seven years old. There are kids here half her age and a third her height riding circles around her.
It’s time.
Thrilled to join the ranks of the bicyclists.
First,
You take the plastic pedals off the bicycle.
Then you make your hubby pose for Exhibit A in your blog post.
Then
the kid learns to balance on the new “glider” bike.
A gentle downward slope helps a great deal in this endeavor.
[Palm trees not required.]
Creativity mastered “gliding” in just a few times down this path behind our house.
Then when they've got the balancing down, you put those pedals back on.
You will probably need to help a bit at this point, as it can be a little tricky to get momentum going at the beginning…
Especially going uphill.
- but it’s a super quick transition from balancing without pedals to real honest-to-goodness bike riding.
Dontcha hate it when a great photo turns out blurry?
Most importantly for this case study, the process was comfortable to the child. She felt in control the whole time and it wasn’t the least bit scary.
That fear factor thing
can be a HUGE roadblock to learning anything new – at least for this particular kid. I can relate. Even if she had the skills, if she was afraid of it… well, it just wouldn’t happen. (So maybe I’m just afraid of a clean house, eh? hahaha!) Going about it this way, however, we only had frustrated tears once, and that was because a little brother got in the way.
But isn't he cute?
Mahalo
- to the kind neighbor who taught us this fabulous technique. I highly recommend it.
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We’ll be trying this for the timid five year old … as soon as I can find where we packed his bike…
Let me know how it goes!
Yeah, Creativity! And yeah, Mom and Dad!
Go C! I’ll have to remember this one…hopefully someday we’ll live somewhere where there is space for her to go out and ride.
We were about to pull that stunt when Akiko just up and started riding her bff’s bike while we were over at their house. Moses has a balance bike that he does great on, so when he’s a bit more coordinated we’ll get him one with pedals. It really is all about mastering balance.
Yay for learning how to ride a bike!
Balance bikes are great. Don’t know why I never thought of turning a regular bike into one. Congrats on the bike-rider; with this technique you’ll have a house full of them soon.
Reminds me of when my brother and I taught our little sister to ride her bike. I think she was 5 or 6, and then as she was happily zooming along, we all realized we had forgotten to tell her how to stop! Oops.
She crashed into a truck, no major damage though, and I doubt any of us will ever forget that step again.
What a great idea, we’ll have to try that with our almost 7 year old. He’s so frightened to ride without training wheels.
Make sure the seat is low enough that his feet touch the ground easily. It helps a lot with the fear factor.
Good luck!
Brilliant! Wish I had know this years ago!
Oh, how I love this! Kirsten is still afraid of her bike with the training wheels. The other kids her age zip around the road in theirs, so I have a feeling this trick will definitely come in handy someday! GREAT post!
Oh, and I know everyone is probably asking you this, but can we come visit you?
YES! Pleeease come visit!