My boyfriend and I both tried to teach our eldest daughter to ride a bike. My stock-standard advice – based on something someone must have told me when I was learning - was to turn the handlebars in the direction you felt you were falling in. This was not my boyfriend’s advice, and in fact he often raised his eyebrows at me whenever I said it.
The years passed, and the kids around us – cousins, neighbours, schoolmates - one by one learnt to ride a bike. Some of them had it all figured out by the age of three or four. My daughter lost interest in trying to ride without training wheels and became interested in other things. She left her bike untouched for what seemed like two years.
Then, last September, we went and stayed with some friends in Corryong. There was a bike lying in the driveway of their home, and while our backs were turned my daughter picked it up and started riding it. Just like that, at the ripe old age of seven.
 |
| Bike, $15, St Paul's Op Shop, Gisborne |
We tried teaching my son for about two years once he turned 4. We gave up finally, until a week before he turned 8, he spent a weekend with one (instead of two) training wheels, then whammo, he was riding a two wheeler. I think some kids can easily pick it up very young, but I think around 7-8 is the 'natural' age where it suddenly all clicks (I was also 8, and we're going to try with my middle child who's 8 now and didn't want to be seen with training wheels after finding out her new friends are all TW-free, LOL).
ReplyDelete