Scooting Towards Riding a Bicycle
Putting Children in Charge of Learning About Cycling
Experts say that children should learn to cycle rather than be taught. A safe way for your child to learn is to turn a bicycle into a scooter or ride a "like-a-bike".
Remember how you were taught how to ride a bicycle as a child? Chances are that you started off with stabilisers before moving up to "pretend riding" with someone holding onto your bike saddle and running alongside. Do not let this be the way that you teach your child how to ride a bicycle, say cycling experts Dan Joyce, Carlton Reid and Paul Vincent in The Complete Book of Cycling [Bounty Books 2000]. Your child should learn how to cycle rather than be taught.
Transform Your Child’s Bike into a Scooter
A safe way for your child to learn - as early as age 3 - is to turn your child’s bike into a scooter. Ensure your child’s feet can reach the ground by adjusting the saddle. Then remove the pedals. On most models of children’s bicycles, you will find that the left pedals unscrews anticlockwise and the right pedal clockwise. The bicycle is now – temporarily – your child’s scooter.
It may sound strange. Imagine yourself on a bike like this. You would be able to push yourself off, scoot, steer and stop elegantly. These are the skills that your child will learn quickly. The first step is to let him learn how to steer… and then brake. When your child is ready, encourage taking his feet off the ground. With four to six hours of practice, a three-year-old could be freewheeling.
A Sense of Balance
Freewheeling shows that your child has got a sense of balance which is at the heart of learning to ride a bicycle. Fit both pedals securely to the bicycle. As confidence grows in your child’s cycling ability, the saddle should be gradually raised. A higher saddle will mean showing how to get off when stopping.
So forget about buying stabilisers as an extra. Stabilisers will slow your child’s learning how to ride a bicycle and delay the fun of cycling. Transform a child’s lightweight bicycle into a scooter, or alternatively a child - from the age of 2 upwards - could learn to balance on a “like-a-bike”, a German-designed super lightweight wooden bicycle.
Safe Cycling
Respect that you have another cyclist in the family. Like all cyclists, children may fall off their bicycle from time to time and when they do, they could bang their head. Your child should use a cycling helmet. This does not mean that you need to hover. Try not to show anxiety about children finding their balance on their bicycle. Just get on your own bike and enjoy cycling together.
