Do it Yourself: Bike Lessons for your kid How we taught our kid to ride a bike We don’t have a car and bike a lot, so our child has been exposed to bicycles practically since they were born. We weren’t sure what this would mean for how quickly our child would take to riding a bike of their own. And we were of course hoping to try to maintain their interest in bikes so they’d want to learn. Balance bikes vs bikes with training wheels I learned to ride on a bike with training wheels, as did most people my age. I have nothing against training wheels, but thought it’d make more sense for our child to first learn balance and handling. This can be done while scooting and gliding on a balance bike. I had noticed that some […]
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Neighborhood Bike Parades That Help Kids Learn to Ride Together
The kids bike parade is a way to let kids play, ride bikes together and learn to ride safely. Children and adults make new friends and build community by bike. How did the bike parade start? Earlier on in the pandemic, we learned that COVID spread mostly through poorly-ventilated air. We tried to think of ways to still foster social interactions between children with a lower risk profile. Our family and a lot of others have gone with their kids biking to spend time outdoors. We started by turning a birthday party into a evening bike ride. Kids had fun biking together and being able to see each other not on a computer screen! Parents got a chance to ride with their kids and others. Neighbors were treated to a lively mini parade. A few parents loved the […]
Continue readingHow do I teach my kid to ride a bike? What others say and our own experiences
Our child took to riding a bike pretty well and we ride around a lot to get from place to place, so we’re frequently asked about how to get kids started on a bike, and how to make a child feel comfortable riding a bike. Back in the day: Training wheels I have memories of when I was a child, watching my dad adjust the training wheels of my old yellow bike. I remember him adjusting the training wheels as I started to get more comfortable on the bike, and how sometimes I’d be riding only on one training wheel or none at all, depending on the terrain and how much I was leaning over. I remember the slightly loud sound of the wheels as they rolled on the ground. All of us neighborhood kids got scared when the biggest […]
Continue readingRiding bikes with children: Talking about cars
In the USA, at least, I found that talking to kids about bike safety meant talking a lot about cars. Dedicated bike paths (in the USA) don’t always take you where you need to go When our child started riding with us on their own bike, I realized that 90% of our communication was about riding safely with cars on the road. It wasn’t about kids bike safety gear, helmets, proper clothing or anything else like that. Dedicated bike paths to the library, the playground, to school or wherever else for running errands usually don’t exist in the States. So, we had to ride in the street, and this meant sharing the road with cars. This is a little scary when riding with a young child. Though there are bike lanes near me, a layer of paint doesn’t feel like […]
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