My husband and I – and a few parents before us 
– have discovered the best way to teach our son to ride a bike.
Ready? The best way to teach a kid to ride a bike is…drum roll, please…
Not to teach them! Instead, forget the tricycles and training wheels and allow them to figure out the balancing act as a toddler.
Sound tricky? Impossible, even? Well, it is tricky in the beginning, but not at all impossible. Here are the steps:
- Buy your child a Skuut
– or any wooden or metal balance bike will do – when he or she is around two years old. (Benjamin is small for his age, so he couldn’t ride it well until he was about 2-1/2.)
- Take them outside and let them sit on the Skuut and learn to move on it with their feet.
- Repeat number two as often as possible.
Some toddlers pick up the balancing act quickly, while others need more practice. Benjamin liked the Skuut for a short time, then ignored it for a while because he couldn’t go as fast as he wanted, then suddenly one day started on it again and now…well, watch the video.
He can actually go three times faster than he did in the video, but in typical three-year-old form he was more interested in what Mommy was doing with the Flip Video Cam than in racing down the hill.
The bottom line is, since before age three Benjamin has been zooming down that hill with his feet in the air like a pro. In a couple of years, he will get on a regular bicycle and be on his merry way with no falls, parental supervision, or training wheels needed.
I like inventions that save me time, money and headache in the long run, don’t you?
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