Yeah well, I wish it was going so well for my 3.5yr old grandaughter, Kiana. She has a Skuut, the crankless wooden bike sold by REI. She hates it. Really...hates it. "Go put that away Grandpa!" She wants a training wheel bike SOOO bad. This doesn't fit into my plans for here to learn to glide and balance, then add in the pedaling. I know best about bikes, right? :~}
I am about to go look for a used training-wheels bike for her. So I am jealous of your nephew's day of discovery. On Jun 28, 10:04 am, James Warren <[email protected]> wrote: > I had three great rides this weekend: > 1) Halfmoon Bay (in California) down to the Tunitas Creek climb > 2) A loop around San Luis Obispo > 3) the absolute best-of-all: a ride with my brother and his 5.8-year-old son > on the Santa Clara bike path. It was flat and was probably about 6 miles > total. (We rode by the Great America roller coasters.) Here is why it was the > best ride: My nephew had learned to ride the day before. He spent Friday > morning learning to negotiate a complicated loop near his house, and every > once in a while had spontaneous pure-joy outbursts like, "It's great to ride > without training wheels!" "This is the best!" and "I love donuts!" > > After all that training, we raised the bar by going out on the public use > trail. He got really good at holding his course and stayed to right and > learned to pass people on the left (using his bell) and he had the best time. > There is nothing better than riding with a kid on a steep learning curve and > having a blast discovering the exploring you can do in a bike. > > And Rivendell-connection: Many years ago, they reviewed some learning bikes > that teach kids balance on wide tire bikes without training wheels and > without pedals. The idea is that the kid learns to get the feel for the > balancing process on a moving bike so that they experience the gyroscope > effect but don't have their balance-feeling process interrupted by the > training wheels. My nephew's experience: he had had some training wheel > experience with its typical ineffectiveness. He then started to ride one of > these learning bikes described above. After using the learning bike for a > little while, one day (last Thursday specifically) he picked up a regular > bike with pedals when no one was looking and decided to see if he could get > the balance on that. He started doing it in the drive way, wobbly figuring it > out himself, but certainly getting it up to speed and pedaling it on his own. > My brother was in the kitchen cleaning up, looked outside and noticed what > his son was doing. He excitedly grabbed the camera nearby, ran outside, and > started filming. > > A day and a half later, my nephew was ready for the trail. One thing I love > about all of this was that there was no coaxing or frustrating teaching from > adults who want it so bad for their kid. Maybe they were lucky; maybe he's > gifted, but I'm pretty sure the learning bike did the job for which it was > designed. Thanks for reading. I had to share and since the learning bike was > in the RR, I found a loophole to share with this list! > > -Jim W. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
