There’s nothing more satisfying to a parent than to watch your child learn a new skill! My 4 year old daughter had been riding on her bike with training wheels this summer and this weekend my husband decided it was time to take them off! I’m gonna be honest, I wasn’t as sure as he was that she was ready. I decided to let daddy take point and see what happens. Once he took those training wheels off, he had her riding on two wheels by lunch time! I was so impressed and decided to share what we learned through the process to help other parents.
Balance Bike
This two wheeling journey began long before we took the training wheels off. We tried to set her up from the beginning by teaching her balance using a balance bike. A balance bike is essentially a bike without pedals. This allowed her to learn the art of coasting for short periods of time. We started her on the balance bike around 2 years old. She rode that for a year and slowly learned how to gain speed and coast for longer periods of time. The bike is also incredibly light and easy to carry so we frequently travelled with the bike when possible to give her ample time to practice riding it.
Training Wheels
A balance bike is pretty light and doesn’t have any pedals so we ended up purchasing her a bike with pedals and training wheels once she grew out of the balance bike. She was about three years old when we made this transition. She was able to get a feel for the heaviness of the bike and how to manage the pedals and the brake. She also had a little more freedom and was learning the rules of the road more as she was able to bike along side me. We practiced on that bike until she was four and we tried at the beginning of the summer to transition her to two wheels but we learned quickly that she wasn’t quite ready so we put them back on and decided we would try towards the end of the summer.
Scooter
Our daughter had received a two wheeled scooter for Christmas from her Aunt and Uncle and she was excited to start using that once the snow melted. She ended up liking the scooter over the bike because it was easy to grab and go for her. It’s light and pretty fast once you get the hang of using it. A month into using the scooter I noticed that she began to balance! We realized that this was a great tool for her to use to get used to riding a bike with two wheels and we watched her confidence grow over the next few months. By September the summer heat was cooling down and we both had talked about moving back to the bike. She seemed ready and daddy was ready for the challenge!
Learning to ride her bike!
Daddy took the training wheels off and ran along side of her to allow her an opportunity to pedal while he was holding on. He did this for a few laps and then started running faster and letting go for short periods of time when she had enough balance but he stayed close in case she started to lean. After about 5 passes my daughter was off! She knew what the balance felt like and she was ready for the challenge. Now we just help her get going and are working on stopping. I can’t believe how much easier the transition was after she practiced using the scooter for a few months.
Tip-Kids get tired out quick when learning a new skill. Our first day ended in a meltdown because she got overly tired and wanted to keep practicing. For our next kid I will plan to stop practicing earlier in the day so he has a chance to wind down before the meltdown! 🙂
