Last night my oldest daughter (who is seven years old) finally learned to ride a bike. After a few painful crashes learning the traditional way (where you just receive a push and try to go), Jane read a tip on one of her mommy blogs about a new method to teach children to ride a bike:
- Remove both pedals from the bike.
- Lower the seat all the way.
- Let the child scoot along with the bike using her feet for as long as she wants. This helps the child learn to balance and feel comfortable on the bike.
- When the child asks for the pedals (my daughter asked for the pedals after two days), reattach them and raise the seat again.
- Now give the child a little push and off she goes.
I was absolutely stunned at what happened. Whereas before she’d been wobbly and would crash after about 25 feet, now she began riding like a pro. Within 5 minutes, it seemed like she’d been riding her bike for years. For a father who felt a certain responsibility in helping his kids learn to ride a bike, watching her cruise down the street with confidence filled me with tremendous pride and gratitude.
My second oldest daughter is almost four. You can bet that I’m already thinking about taking the pedals off her bike.
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Oct 03, 2008
[...] Ingenious Technique for Helping Your Child Learn to Ride a Bike [...]
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I will try this method no doubt, I need only have a child
Reminds me of a little show on Treehouse recently where they showed how kids in that country are first given a wooden bike without pedals to use before given a real bike. I can’t for the life of me remember the country, though perhaps it was Holland?
All kids are different. My daughter, who is cautious, had no interest in riding a bike till age 6. On the other hand, my son, showing no fear, jumped on his little bike at age 4 and rode around like a daredevil. Now he is a teenager and unfortunately drives the same way.
Great story. You should post it to parenthacks.com.
I had a horrible time learning to ride a bike. I was, by turns, terrified, ashamed, and afraid my dad was going to yell at me. I gave up. A lot.
I finally learned by using a friend’s bike in exactly the way you describe… we didn’t take the pedals off, but the seat was so low I could just push myself along. It worked great. I did this on my own, two or three blocks away from parental eyes, and once I was good at it I came home and told my mom and had her lower the seat on my hand-me-down bike. Voila!
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Thank you for the information. It will be helpful when the time comes i will teach my children to ride bike. I also bookmark your page. Great post! thanks.
I am happy to visit your website and learn this information. I will try to teach my daughter to ride bike but i need to buy one first.
It’s a good idea to teach children ride a bike because it helps them to learn new information. Aside from that, it serve as a bonding time together.
Parents are responsible for the growth of their child. Teaching children on how to ride a bike is important because in that way they learn something new.
It works. It works fast. I was amazed
Maybe you can assist me! I am looking to purchase a bike for my son and i simpy dont know what type of bike i should be going for? I mean when i got my CBR i knew exactly what i wanted for a long time, but he is still unsure what he wants? Is there maybe a decent way to determine whats best?
Hello there. I would like to know if you have an RSS Feed so I can subscribe to it. I really enjoyed your post and I would like to maintain up to date. Keep up the good work and thank you in advance.