Comment by mroset

Comment by mroset 4 days ago

My daughter started using a balance bike around 18 months. By the time she was 2.5, she zoomed around on it and had started asking about pedals. We got her a pedal bike two months before she turned 3, with the expectation that we might have to take the pedals off for a few more months. Instead, within a few days (maybe 2 total hours of practice?) she was riding confidently and totally by herself--at not quite 3 years old.

It's so different than the challenging, scary attempts to remove training wheels when my siblings and I were 5 or 6 years old. One of those things where I didn't realize the science and tradition on teaching kids to ride bikes could change so dramatically within two decades!

throwaway2037 4 days ago

Wow, what a story. You daughter was riding a regular bike before three. Is she physically talented in other ways? That seems exceptional!

Reply View 4 replies

scraplab 4 days ago

All three of my kids were riding full bikes around 3 years old, having used a balance bike for 12-18 months previous. I don’t think my kids are exceptional - balance bikes work wonders!

Reply View | 2 replies
- danielbln 4 days ago
  
  Same story here. My kiddo rode her bike at 3 easily, and used a balance bike before that.
  Me on the other hand, I had a tough time back when I was a kid on training wheels, only really grokking it at 6 or so.
  
  Reply View | 1 reply
  
  throwaway2037 3 days ago
  
  > only really grokking it at 6 or so
  This reads like a carbon copy of my experience! When I learned to ride a bike at 6, it was so hard. I had to practice for a long time with my father. These balance bikes really are a game-changer.
  
  Reply View | 0 replies
mroset 3 days ago

She doesn't have very athletic parents, so she regularly exceeds my expectations for her, but she's not a particular standout otherwise!
Probably the more relevant factor: we replaced one of cars with a cargo bike when she was 15 months old, so she does 1500+ miles a year "on" a bike, and a tiny fraction of that in a car (we live in a totally car-centric US city, so this is pretty out of the norm). Bikes are the fabric of her daily life so she is really, really motivated to spend time on a bike.

Reply View | 0 replies

matsemann 4 days ago

Yeah, ironically training wheels was a bad idea. It learns you the motions of pedaling, but not the core skill: balancing.

Reply View 0 replies