Thursday, June 18, 2009

Learning to Ride

In our family of five children, we've accomplished many milestones over the years.
5 first steps
4 potty trainings
3 first days of school
2 established readers (and one well on her way, I might add)
1 first time riding a two-wheeler (yes, only one)

Braeden (11) has cerebral palsy, and he's got a super-cool adapted bike to ride, and we don't really expect that his strength or balance will reach a point where he will be able to ride a "regular" bike.

Abbey (7) decided two summers ago that she wanted her training wheels removed. Pat ran behind her holding on to the back of her seat for about 30 seconds before she took off like a shot!
Shea (4) and Kai (1) will eventually need to learn, but that will come later.

We have one holdout on the bike-riding. Megan (6) simply has no interest in learning. We took off her training wheels this summer in hopes of helping her learn; instead she has been using Shea's bike. She doesn't like the unbalanced feeling. I also suspect she is not particularly fond of the amount of effort required to learn this new skill.

I'm honestly not very concerned about it (though I do find it odd to see a six-year-old with training wheels), and I don't feel the need to push, but when I saw this post offering the chance to win one of these running bikes - I just couldn't resist entering the contest. (And given the fact that we've got 3 remaining kids to teach, I am considering just ordering one if I don't win. Or at the very least, removing our kids' pedals along with their training wheels to get the same concept.)



I vaguely recall learning to ride my banana-seat bike without training wheels the summer before Kindergarten started. When did you learn to ride? What about your kids?

5 comments:

  1. Cool Idea!
    All of my children rode 2 wheeled bikes early without any issues...that is until now...Having children with disabilities changes the name of the game...

    Having Gabriel being almost 6 and still not ridding a two wheeler...he actually prefers to ride a tricycle...I am sure it has to do with balance/sensory feeling etc...
    Not sure I care ..really...so he is different then children his age ...but he is like that in every area...to me he is not different but is unique and there is nothing wrong with that...sooner or later he will pick it up just as he has everything else...

    These little kids on the video are sure flying...pretty cool

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  2. MY first four children learned to ride a two wheel by the time they were four. We have NEVER had to teach our children to ride without training wheels. They all taught themselves. When they were starting out they each had a bike the size of the ones in the little video. We just took the training wheels off, they wobbled around on their own, and never hurt themselves. Within a couple of days they were pro two wheel bike riders!!

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  3. That is one of the cutest ideas I have seen in a long time. Thank you for sharing!

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  4. I kept thinking these were your kids!! I was So confused for a few minutes!!

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  5. Oh give her time! She'll get it!

    I hope you win :)

    K rides her bike (age 6) and learned at 5?

    T is doing it in a very basic manner...age 4, almost 5.

    But their daddy loves biking and works with them on it cause he loves it!

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