We tried this summer, but on the 4th of July Ella was still too short and too timid to master riding a two-wheel bike. Amy, my good friend and parenting expert, filled me in on their secret, which was to take the pedals off the bike. Then we found this pedal-less balance bike for FIVE DOLLARS (pictured below). Plus, Ella's been getting the feeling of balance from the tandem bike. All these things, with the addition of a few inches of leg and a few months of maturity, prompted us to make a Spring Break goal of getting Ella to ride without her training wheels.
We couldn't have predicted the immediate success! On their first attempt, Dave pushed for about 2 seconds until Ella just took off! And once she got the feel, she spent the afternoon circling our church parking lot on her own. We planned on spending good time this Spring Break week mastering this and it all happened within the first hour of vacation!
Yes, there were spills. Ella has a number of bumps and scratches on her legs and palms. There was even a little blood, but surprisingly, no tears. We were so proud that after each fall, she got right back up and worked even harder on mastering those brakes.
In typical Ella fashion, as we loaded the bikes back into the van, she started asking about cycling competition. "Is it like running? Can I enter a bike race and cross a finish line now that I'm a real bike rider?" From training wheels to triathlon plans all in one afternoon-- we have our very own little Lance Armstrong! :)
2 comments:
Jen, this is awesome! I knew she'd take to it! :)
"Parenting expert..." bwahahaha, you are funny!
Amy
Jen, this is the same way we've taught our kiddos to ride a bike. Anika was 4 the summer we tried and within a week she was riding on her own. Andrew spent a few weeks on the pedal-less bike, but he was riding a two-wheeler at 3 years old. Kat is my petite one so she's got the pedal-less bike right now but it will be awhile before she is tall enough for her two-wheeler. So fun to see them accomplish these things, eh?
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