Learning to Ride

This past weekend, both kids decided they wanted to learn how to ride their bikes without training wheels. Exciting milestone!

So on Saturday afternoon, we got out the kids' bikes and gave it a go. Unfortunately, it turned out that BJ's bike had a flat tire. BB and I worked together while S tried to patch the tire. She really caught on quickly!

She was a little nervous about falling and getting hurt -- you know it's serious when BB consents to wear JEANS to do something; I'd told her that she definitely needed to wear pants, not a dress, and that jeans would probably protect her better. This is the first time she's worn jeans in years! (Last time was before she could speak to tell me that she didn't like them!)

I managed to get a little video as well -- first, while S was working on BJ's bike. Then S came over to help with documenting things.










It turned out that the patch on BJ's tire didn't take, and by the time we figured this out, it ended up being too late to take it to the shop and get it repaired. He was a little disappointed, understandably. So I told him he could work on balancing by practicing with his scooter, and he zipped around for a bit while BB and I worked on her riding.

On Sunday, S brought in BJ's bike to get the flat repaired, and he also talked with the folks at the bike shop about teaching a kid to ride. They ended up removing the pedals on BJ's bike so that he could practice coasting first. I think this will be a really good thing for him. Here is S helping him get up enough speed to coast.

It worked really well for him not to be tripping over the pedals. (Actually, they recommend never using training wheels at all -- go for a balance bike first, then add pedals. But we weren't that good.)

Interesting to see the different learning styles and to see how things go with BB and her pedals versus BJ and his coasting. I'm so proud of both of them!

We didn't manage to get any video for BJ, so I'll be trying for that next time we practice. Probably today!