Santa dropped off this blue beauty while we were gone for Christmas.
That’s all she wanted for Christmas, and good old Santa knew he needed to act quick to keep her wanting to learn.
He sure had high hopes for her because that thing is huge I tell you!
But we have been practicing.
…and practicing.
And practicing.
And practicing some more.
Phew, it’s a lot of work. But I think she’s finally got the pedaling part down.
Now if we can just get her to look where she’s going, steer, and balance…
i read somewhere that taking the pedals off the bike and kind of turning it into a balance bike really helps them learn to ride without ever falling. So that's what we have done with my five year old. FOr about six months she's been gliding around without pedals and can balance and steer really well. SO we've added the pedals and she's done great. not one fall.
That bike is really cool looking. So is all of your kids bikes. What kind of bikes do they all have????
Along those same lines, we always used a smaller bike to start our kids on so their feet could touch the ground, and that's what they would do, glide. Eventually they would watch where they were going because they weren't working so hard on the balancing. It worked with all six of my kids and the neighbor kids. haha
This is the method we used to teach my eldest son when the standard approach wasn't working. We broke it down over a few days, but it totally worked.
http://www.bicycle.net/2008/teach-your-child-to-ride-in-one-hour-or-less-do-it-today
I second the comment about taking the pedals off the bike and let them get used to it that way. Both my boys started out that way (for about a week) before we put the pedals on and it worked like a charm. Plus not having to run along side them is a win in my book!
Good luck Lu! You can do this!
looks like you've already received lots of suggestions, but I thought I'd just pass on what we've learned with our son. We were referred to a local bike shop who works with adaptive cycling needs and the owner had great ideas to help our son learn to ride. We were just trying to get him on a bike at all and learn to pedal. You said you've pretty much got that down, but in case she could use more practice, there are ways to help. He watched our son on a bike in the shop and decided he looked pretty confident on the bike (with training wheels) but he didn't have the pedaling motion down. So he suggested putting the training wheels up on phone books so the rear wheel os off the ground. That way the child can basically have a stationary bike and practice pedaling motion without the resistance the ground provides. Its about creating motor memory so that the legs and brain get down the movement and then you can move to adding the resistance the ground provides. If your child is unstable then a balance bike or removing the pedals so they have their feet on the ground might be the better situation. Just some thoughts. Happy riding! Now our son has pedaling down but the looking where he is going is a problem. He loves watching the wheels and chain go around so we have to work on that part.
I found this to be a real back saver for training….
http://www.amazon.com/Balance-Buddy-31264002-Adjustable/dp/B000MISWIW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1391651144&sr=8-2&keywords=bike+balance+training+handle
Taking off the pedals is the way to go. We took the bike to a local bike shop to remove the whole pedal mechanism (and then had them reassemble once she learned how to balance.) We got the book "Riding made easy" and it made such a difference.
One more suggestion. After our kiddos were comfy peddling, we took of only one training wheel. They still had that wheel to help get started and I didn't have to try to run to keep up. All three learned to ride this way. It helped them to balance, and if they felt wobbly, the could lean to the side with the training wheel. Hope this helps and way to go Lucy!!!
We also used a bike that was really small to get them started so they could glide and have the confidence that they could put heir feet firmly on the ground without having to tilt over when they felt unsure. they learned to glide, push off, pedal, and put their feet down whenever they needed. They all progressed quickly that way. I almost feel like they have to learn without anyone touch the bike because they get a feel for balancing that way and a small bike allows them to do it on their own.