Two or three months ago, a friend of mine described for me an interesting way to teach a kid to ride a bike. The main idea was that you remove the training wheels and the pedals and let the kid propel herself with her feet. This will teach her or him balance. Once the child can balance somewhat, put the pedals on and the child should be able to learn how to ride without falling over so much.
It wasn't that simple with Sonora. She is only 3.5 years old. In some ways, she is perhaps too young to ride a bike, but I didn't want to have to teach her how to ride with training wheels and then take them off and have to teach her all over again. Better to teach her all at once, I figured. However, she hadn't done much pedaling of anything before, so I had to teach her how to pedal as well as how to balance. We practiced almost every day of the week for about a month and a half before she got it. The video below shows her at various stages in the process. It was a rewarding way to spend time with her.
1 comment:
i thought you wrote she was three to five years old... but 3.5 or 3 1/2... ok...
i remember trying so hard to ride a bike... i got one when i was six - my little sister had to pump me around all summer because it took me a while to figure out the concept... had a dream that i was riding a bike and did it the next day with ease...
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