Summer time is here and this year, it will be a momentous summer because we’ll be working diligently with our daughter to shed her training wheels, master her swimming lessons and so much more. When it comes to getting the training wheels off, it can be a real rite of passage for child and parents.
Some Kids are Daredevils
I know many children in my neighborhood that are real daredevils. I, myself, was a daredevil. I shed my training wheels two days after I got my bike. My motivation lay more in the fact that I broke the training wheels rather than I wanted to get rid of them.
My daughter isn’t a daredevil, she develops a fear reflex for anything that’s new or different. In fact, she’s so worried that she won’t be good at something, that she won’t do it. It’s crazy, but she got that from her father. I have no problem with looking like a ridiculous fool.
Yes, I know that’s not the most motivational way to speak to your very worried and concerned six year old and trust me, I don’t say those things to her. Instead, we have a plan for getting the training wheels off.
How to Get the Training Wheels Off
First and foremost, taking the training wheels off is a confidence building exercise. It’s a confidence building exercise for you and for your child. First of all, you have to be willing to let them fall. You also have to keep your fear off your face and out of your tone.
The hardest part of learning to balance on a bike is the fact that not only do you have to steer the bike, you have to push the pedals and maintain your balance all the same time. We have a great trick that’s worked for training many kids to ride their bikes.
You take them to a park or an area with grassy sloping hills. You want the slope of the hill to be gentle so that your child doesn’t have to worry about pedaling. Instead, you put them at the top of the slope (make sure they are wearing their helmet) and then let them start riding down the hill. All they have to concentrate on is the balancing.
Once they have mastered this, then we work on the pedaling. Most kids have trouble with the idea that you have to have one pedal higher than the other and that’s the pedal you start off on. Still, it may all sound tough in execution, but riding a bike is actually a pretty natural motion once you put it all together.
So this is the summer the training wheels are coming off. How did you help your child when they were ready to take the training wheels off?
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