Jordan has been asking me for quite a while to take the stabilizers (training wheels) off of her bike. She finally got her wish using the ever popular "all of my friends are doing it". She can't be the only 5 year old on the block with training wheels still on her bike so off they came. We live at the bottom of a cul-de-sac. By bottom I mean bottom of a HILL. So, we pack up the bike and head up to the base where they have huge, flat park areas with sidewalks running all around protected by grass on both sides. This is where I found out how different it was teaching the girl to ride a bike then the boys.
Jackson rode a bike without training wheels at four. I was pregnant and my neighbor insisted Jackson could ride. Took his training wheels off, ran with him down the street and that was that. He could turn, he could brake, and soon after he could ride that bike off a ramp and jump over items placed at the end of the ramp. Evel Kneivel watch out.
Jared didn't learn so quickly. Jared doesn't like doing things that he knows could potentially hurt him. I never pushed taking the training wheels off. In fact I was inside the house and the kids came yelling to come watch Jared kamikaze down the cul-de-sac hill in to our driveway. He was on Jackson's old bike with no training wheels and did just fine. He was 7.
Jordan is a totally different story. She wants to ride this bike. In fact she CAN DO IT ALL BY HERSELF!! That is what I heard over and over yesterday. I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP! In fact I actually had to turn my back to her and ignore her unless she invited me to watch her attempts. We found that while she is hesitant about riding on the sidewalks she can ride for quite a long time on the grass. Good thing it is a soccer field because while she can ride she can't turn. This doesn't mean she goes straight, because she doesn't. If you ask her to turn she will yell "I CAN'T DO IT" which is probably the reason she can't. She also can not start the pedaling process on her own. Coordinating where her feet should best be placed, pushing off and then getting the other foot on the pedal? Not quite there yet.
As our lesson ended she was out in the field and fell over. I saw her, she was barely moving at the time of the "crash" and she fell mostly of her own doing. She started crying. I ignored her. Then I see this man running in full speed rescue mode towards her. Being the mom I am I had to yell out to him that she in fact was okay and just being dramatic.
I then walked out to the field, put her back on the bike and pushed her on her way again.
11 comments:
My 6 year old still has them on his bike, he wants them off, but he doesn't want to practice.
I love how children are so black and white: I CAN'T DO IT. If I hear that one more time, I'm seriously going to ban those words from our house... Let me know if you learn how to teach them to turn without just grabbing the bars and saying "TURN", a technique that doesn't seem to be working for me.
It sounds like Jordan needed to take a break from practicing.
She'll get the hang of it.
Marissa still hasn't learned how to ride a bike. She really didn't want to learn.
Josh loves his bike and Katelyn is about ready to have the training wheels taken off.
BTW~Can you check to see if my page is loading OK now. I think I figured out the problem.
My son took his off last year, rode beautifully, then didn't ride for a while, got spooked, and completely forgot how. We're back at square one again. My daughter is going to be like Jordan though I suspect.
PS Re my tip for baking salmon. Just to make sure there's no confusion, I'm talking about KOSHER salt, NOT the kind of rock salt you put on your driveway in winter :-).
LOL Thanks robin - I could have seen us making salmon one minute and soaking our feet the next.
Christine - yep she got a break after the last meltdown - she just rode her bike straight to the car. Today she rode beautifully!!
Bikes n kids...
I was "treated" my first "riding lesson" in much the same way Jackson was. Pushed off on my sister's bike, down our sloping driveway, and just kept going until I was too tired to pump any more. Kept riding between our driveway and our neighbor's cos while I managed to turn the thing around, I had NO idea how to get off it! Finally, too pooped to pop, I simply crashed and burned. My hands and knees, that is. Road burns. *heh*
My children? Lil Miss Independent and Mr. Majorly Cautious.
Different strokes. I rode through college (cheap transportation) and even for some years after. Neither one of my children rode beyond childhood. Of course, they had my record to encourage them (hit by cars four times while riding my bike: all four by drivers--one, our neighbor and another a fellow college student backing out at rather high speed from her own driveway; I got a LOT of play out of that one :-)--who just "didn't see" me. *heh*).
That is an ordeal yet to come for us. It will be interesting to see what their style of learning is.
So far, I would guess that Mim will be very much like Jordan. I hear all the time, "No! Mimmy do it by self!"
Oh did this post ever bring back a lot of memories of our kids learning to ride their bikes. Great post!
#2 is going to be 5 in a few weeks. I'm lucky I can get her ON her bike, even though once she's there, she's happy as a clam (still with training wheels). And we have become a big biking family, too!
You're right to start her on the grass; I read an article about how to get kids riding and that was one of the things it said to do (the other was lower her seat so she can touch the ground comfortably and stop herself, and then as she gets more comfortable and able, raise it to where it should be). #1 did it that way earlier this year, in fact. He was back on the driveway within an hour.
You are a mama after my own heart! No doubt about it.
All three on bikes almost, fantastic!
I can't wait for Baby Boo to be big enough to sit in a bike seat or bike trailer so we can all go out together. MF looooves to ride on his dad's bike, and he is now the proud owner of one of those wooden bikes without wheels to get him used to the balancing thing.
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