From the article: What Is the Best Way to Teach My Child How to Ride a Bike?
When and how did your child learn to ride a bike? What do you think is the best method for teaching kids to balance, steer, and propel forward on a two-wheeler? If your child was nervous about riding solo, how did you help him overcome his fears? Trade tips and stories with other parents. Share Your Tips
I'm a Balance Bike Believer
- I learned when I was 6 by having the neighbor kid sit behind me on a "banana seat" bike. I learned how to pedal, while he supplemented my balance. I got the feel for both without fear of falling. This worked great and I learned in a few days of a couple sessions. Now I have a son and when he was 2.5 we got him a balance bike. It was a 10" non-inflatable wheel model by Haro and cost 100 bucks. He loved it and mastered it very fast. When he was 3 I picked up a 20 dollar 12" bike on craigslist that had training wheels. My son had totally mastered balance but had no clue how to pedal. He would push the bike around and the pedals would bump into his legs, but didn't really cause bruising or scrapes. I toyed with the idea of using training wheels to help him figure out how to pedal. The conflict was that it is easy to pedal with the seat way up, but that is the worst way to brace yourself. He just turned 3.5 and is now pedaling all over and we never used training wheels.
- —zootjeff
Riding A Bike
- I liked what you said Kara - I learned a lot from this post, much appreciated!
- —Guest Bigal
Be patient
- Just taught my boys how to ride bikes and it was definitely more of a challenge than I thought it would be. Every kid has a different learning curve so I think the best advice is to BE PATIENT AND SUPPORTIVE!
- —Guest Taylor Jones
Smaller bike
- When my son had just turned 5 he had been riding on a bike with training wheels for a while so he knew how to pedal. Then we used a very small 12" wheel bike that we had bought at a yard sale for $10 and took the training wheels off. He learned how to ride in 1 day. Then he easily gained confidence and quickly moved back up to his 16" bike. We tried the training wheels on and then mom and dad holding the back of the bike when we told our older daughter and that took a lot more time.
- —Guest Kara
easy method for learning to ride a bike
- everyone can learn at an age of 3-4 years, all you need is willingness and the right approach. it helps if the kids have had experience pedaling and using the brakes on a bike while using training wheels. assuming they understand pedaling and braking, you just take off the pedals, lower the seat and ask them to scoot around and down a slight slope with the goal of going as far as possible with feet not touching the ground. Once they can go for 5 yards with feet up (assuming there's enough velocity to go 5 yards), you can put the pedals back on. ask them to scoot off and start pedaling, and they will take off and will just keep going (that's why knowing how the bike stops is important). Never hold your kid's bike unless helping with the initial scoot off. Whenever you put your hand on the kid or the bike, you interfere with his balancing that he is trying to learn. They can always stick their leg out to rebalance. Once the kid is comfortable you should raise the seat as needed.
- —Guest biker
6 and 7 year old learned in 15 minutes
- Balance and confidence are the two keys to riding a bike. My kids gradually gained their balance on Razor scooters and we noticed they gained considerable balance and confidence in the past few weeks. Last night, my son said he wanted to try his bike. We tried in the grass first and he got it for about 100 feet, but enough to boost his confidence. His sister, not to be outdone, then tried and was able to ride for a bit as well. We moved up to the driveway (about 100 feet) and today they have been able to ride all day without assistance. Start slow and let them get the balance and confidence first (you can't really teach someone how to balance - they're in their own body). Good Luck
- —Guest Q
Low Rider
- My son learned to ride in a day, when he was 6 or 7. We had his best friend and family help us, so it was a fun, relaxed 'event', which really helped with his fears. The big thing that I think helped the most is we lowered the seat so he could easily put his feet down and stop himself from falling over if need be. That helped him forget about falling and focus more on balance and having fun.
- —Guest Elizabeth
