I learned to ride a bicycle like most of us, with a bicycle with training wheels. The first bicycle I bought for my kids was almost identical. They learned to pedal, but struggled to figure out how to balance, which was the same problem I battled as a kid.
Then my youngest started whining he wanted a bike like the kids down the street. I stepped outside and watched my son's best friend go sailing past our driveway on his bicycle with no training wheels. That is when I noticed something odd, the bicycle had no pedals either.
I stood in the front yard and watched as he ran a few steps with the bike between his legs and then sat down to ride for about 20 feet before doing it again. My son ran to the street and begged for a chance to try. He was able to do the exact same thing. He could balance for about 15 to 20 feet after running to get the bike going.
I strolled down the street to find out more about the bike. The bikes are called Balance Bikes because they are designed to reverse what other training bikes do. Intead of teaching kids to pedal first, they focus on teaching them how to balance first, which makes sense. Pedaling is easy, balancing is hard.
I checked out all the options on a website that I posted because I am a spammer. It is amazing to watch kids switch from battling to learn to balance ater taking off the training wheels, to having a blast running and riding while they practice balancing. Our kids are all riding regular bikes now, but they still pull out their Balance Bike to go out in the street and play, plus they constantly loan it to other kids who are trying to learn to ride.
My kids knew how to pedal from riding their tricycles, but it was not until they lost the pedals that they learned how to balance. Makes you wonder if we are teaching the wrong skill first.
Then my youngest started whining he wanted a bike like the kids down the street. I stepped outside and watched my son's best friend go sailing past our driveway on his bicycle with no training wheels. That is when I noticed something odd, the bicycle had no pedals either.
I stood in the front yard and watched as he ran a few steps with the bike between his legs and then sat down to ride for about 20 feet before doing it again. My son ran to the street and begged for a chance to try. He was able to do the exact same thing. He could balance for about 15 to 20 feet after running to get the bike going.
I strolled down the street to find out more about the bike. The bikes are called Balance Bikes because they are designed to reverse what other training bikes do. Intead of teaching kids to pedal first, they focus on teaching them how to balance first, which makes sense. Pedaling is easy, balancing is hard.
I checked out all the options on a website that I posted because I am a spammer. It is amazing to watch kids switch from battling to learn to balance ater taking off the training wheels, to having a blast running and riding while they practice balancing. Our kids are all riding regular bikes now, but they still pull out their Balance Bike to go out in the street and play, plus they constantly loan it to other kids who are trying to learn to ride.
My kids knew how to pedal from riding their tricycles, but it was not until they lost the pedals that they learned how to balance. Makes you wonder if we are teaching the wrong skill first.
