This summer I have two distinctive goals in parenting, teaching my daughter to ride her bike and how to swim.  Both skills every child need to be a successful kid and both will hopefully stay with her for the rest of her life.  Remembering back to the day when I was a kid, when I wasn’t swimming, I was on my bike and vice versa.  The bike was my ticket to freedom, the ability to go somewhere on a whim... maybe even to swim.  That’s the way ti should be, instead of being parked in front of a video game system for hours on end.  I digress- this is literally a tirade that could fill volumes.

My daughter can be easily frustrated by things that don’t come easily to her, which is a problem since learning to ride a bike comes with its share of bumps and bruises.  I learned how to ride by having my mother grab the back of the banana seat of a purple girl’s bike and pushing me through the yard.  I tried his method last summer, it really didn’t work for us.  At this point I should note that this is retrospective since she is now riding.

What I found to be most successful was sitting out on the front sidewalk with a skateboard, a razor scooter, and last but not least her bicycle.  We could go back and forth between activity and things felt less like a lesson and more like playtime.  If she wanted to ride down the sidewalk on the skateboard on her belly... so be it.  Every so often I would interject, lot’s go on the bike- I would have her push the bike without putting her feet on the pedals.  This developed some comfort with the feeling of the bike.  It is also worth noting that her bike was grossly undersized.  This gave her complete control.  This seemed to work well.  If it had gone longer I would have removed the pedals to make it more accessible.

The razor scooter helped as well with balance, I can’t express how good that little scooter was for her.  She started with small pushes, as she became more comfortable larger pushes.  The important thing to remember is that she is balancing on two wheels.  She had a great deal of success right out of the gate with the razor and her ability on the razor is that it is easy to bail on if things aren’t going well, thus minimizing the bumps and bruises.

The training wheels came off right away, when I figured out she could tank pretty hard with the training wheels just as without.  It is then when I channeled my youth and the banana seat. I grabbed her handlebar on one side and had her riding around the yard. It became obvious that she was using me to balance by learning heavily on my hand.  At this point I grabbed her by the shoulders, our motto through the whole experience was “it’s okay to put your feet down.” Which she did numerous times.

The most important lesson in all of this is to be consistent.  Once you as the parent decide that it is time to learn, be available every night to work on it.  The day in the day out repetition is what builds stronger skills and more confidence.

This was one task as a parent, I’ve looked forward to since the day my daughter was born and it was been one of the most gratifying.  At this point we hit the bike trail and ride several miles all the while working on skills, bike path etiquette (something everyone could use a refresher on) and having fun.

The last lesson learned, was learned by me.  There is no such thing as a bike ride without doing something goofy.  This took me back to when I was a kid.  There was always something to ride over or jump.  There was always the teen riding down the street no hands while drinking Mountain Dew to try and emulate.  A ride around the corner can turn into three hours attempting curb endos.  That is part of what is great about riding bikes, you never know what kind of fun is waiting to he had around the corner.  With that being said, there is always a ned for a helmet.  Even through I (we) never wore them as a kid(s) doesn’t mean that it was smart.  Always make sure your children are as safe as they can be while out and about.  You don’t want to ruin your fun by wiping out at the skatepark trying something that is beyond your skill-set without a lid.