Peter is still loving the Trail-A-Bike; we all are. On Father’s Day, Don’s wish was to go out for breakfast. So we all rode together to a restaurant about two miles away. After breakfast, we rode through campus, got on the bike trail, and rode along the river to a park with a playground. All of this before it got too hot outside. It was a great morning.
Peter will probably get a two-wheeled bike next year, when he is five. I got my first bike for my fifth birthday. (Peter’s birthday is in February, though, and a bike isn’t a such a great present when there’s snow on the ground.) The American learning-to-ride-a-bike tradition is for a parent to hold onto the seat and run along behind the child until the child learns to balance. I don’t remember anyone ever doing that for me (maybe someone did, but I don’t remember). I remember practicing on the driveway. I would get on the bike, push the pedals, veer off to one side, and fall down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Then, magically, one time I went a little farther before falling off. I thought it was a fluke. I tried again. I did seem to go a little farther. Soon I could make it across the width of the driveway. I yelled for my mom to come out and watch me. I had learned to ride a bike! It didn’t take long until I was riding up and down the sidewalks.
When we get a bike for Peter, I’m not going to put training wheels on. As far as I can tell, no one actually learns to ride with training wheels on. People just put them on bikes so little kids can feel like they’re riding and not get hurt or frustrated by falling down, but kids still have to learn to balance after the training wheels come off. Why waste the time using training wheels? Peter can practice and fall down until he figures it out. If he gets tired of it, he can go back to his tricycle or ride with us on the Trail-A-Bike.
If I had the money, I’d buy him a balance bike so he could practice balancing without having to deal with pedaling. You can see a video of kids on balance bikes here at 5 Minutes for Mom, where you can find details on how to enter a contest to win one. You can check out a variety of models here; personally, I like the ones that look more like “real” bikes rather than the wooden ones.
Learning to ride a bike is an important rite of passage for kids. Bikes give kids freedom and a greater range. I already let Peter ride his tricycle to the playground by himself (after going with him a couple times to make sure he knew how to get back home). In a year or two, he’ll be riding by himself all over the housing complex. Then maybe to the library (less than a mile away, with no major streets to cross). Then maybe to the bike trail (which requires crossing one major street). And then the world!
