With warmer weather approaching, I offer a tip for you parents faced with teaching your kids how to ride a bicycle.  I have seen this tip work wonders in two cases now and I think there is really something to it.

Take the frustration out of learning to ride a bike

Last Summer my 5-year old asked me to take the training wheels off of her bike. I agreed and we we spent about 30, painful minutes trying to get her to ride it.  It became very clear that she wasn’t ready to ride a bike.  I had the idea to challenge her to learn to ride her brother’s Razor scooter so that she could stand on it with both feet and ride.  My thought was that if she could at least figure out how to balance herself upright on two wheels that would likely be all she needed to get going.

She spent the next couple weeks learning to ride that scooter in a much safer and more controllable way for her.  After the first week she was pretty well riding around the length of our driveway (which is really long) with both feet on the scooter and turning as well.  Following the second week, she asked me to help her try her bike again.

I took her out to the drive way, balanced the bike while she climbed on, and in seconds she was off and pedaling down the driveway leaving me in the dust.  I didn’t even have to hold on to it again.  The only things she needed to learn was to start and stop on her own and that took only a few more tries.  It was really cool to see her go from hopeless leaner to bike rider in such a short time.

It wasn’t long before her best friend next door wanted to learn to ride like my daughter.  I told her dad about the scooter trick and they borrowed ours to learn.  In just about the same time, she was riding her bike too.

I think the secret really is just to learn how to balance upright and the bike riding seems to take care of itself.  The beauty of the scooter first is that the kids feel so much more in control and most of the time they can easily catch themselves if they start to fall.  It is a real confidence booster and seems to take much of the trauma out of learning to ride a bike.  Give it a try or suggest it to someone you know.

Please comment below if this approach has worked for you too.