How to Teach Your Child How to Ride a Pedal Bike
A few weeks ago, we took the day to teach our 4 year old how to ride a 2-wheeled bike. We crammed as much practice into one day to:
- Save our sanity, and backs (being hunched over while your wild child pedals with fury hurts after a while).
- Take advantage of his eagerness–he has no fears!
He had been on a balance bike since he was 18 months old, so he had the balance down on his pedal bike, but had never practiced pedaling. His 2-wheeled bike has hand brakes on both sides of the handlebars, and it also has a kickstand. Our biggest struggle was constantly pedaling and steering at the same time, because, unlike a balance bike, you can’t just “stop” moving your legs for a while and coast… you will fall over.
What we did before he even got on his bike:
- We had him lay on the couch and practice the forward motion of medaling, since kids who are learning to pedal often pedal backwards, and end up falling over. I set a timer to a fun song and we timed it to see if he could pedal forward for the entire song.
- We then went outside and pretended to ride a bike. We practiced bike safety rules. This was very important to us before he got on a bike since he is impulsive and busy! We practiced how to pull to the side if someone is coming down the sidewalk, and how to stop at the corner and wait for a grownup to say, “CLEAR!” before crossing the street. We also practiced how to check alleys and driveways for moving cars.
NOW WE GOT TO USE THE BIKE!
- We had him walk with his bike and practiced pulling the hand breaks to get a feel for how quickly the bike stops. Kids tend to pull hard on the hand breaks, instead of progressively and more slowly. He still mostly used his feel to stop, since that is what he was used to doing.
- At first, we had him just walk his bike like a balance bike. This didn’t last long, though, because he wanted to GO.
- Next, we went to a grassy area with a small slope and had him practice pedaling down the hill. We left him “fall” gently, maybe 100 times (it felt like it), without hurting him to allow his body to understand when he was leaning too much to the side.
- After some google searching, we learned not to hold the back of his bike seat or steering handles when learning how to balance and steer. This throws off balance. Instead, we would put a light hand close to his shoulders.
- After we graduated from the grass, we went to a big parking lot in a school near our home.
Tips for helping teach your own child:
💡 There is no race to ride a bike. There is no magical age when a should SHOULD be riding a bike. If your child is older, and hesitant, you can slowly introduce riding a bike through books and modeling. Forcing a child into something they are pushing hard against will often backfire. Some kids will learn in a day, some over a few months span. Trust and follow your child’s lead. Know when to give your child a “cushion” and back off, and when to give a “pushin'” and encourage them to try something new. From a developmental perspective, bike riding takes motor skills such as balance and bi-lateral coordination. It also requires executive functioning skills such as impulse control, self-talk, and doing more than one thing at a time. These developmental milestones begin to really develop around ages 4-6 ish.
💡 If you lead towards anxiousness, when our kids take off on two wheels it can make us cringe and hold our breath. As best as you can, try not to project your own anxieties onto your child, especially if they lean towards anxiousness as well.
Replace: “Be careful!” with “How does your body feel?
Replace: “Don’t turn so sharply, you will fall!!!” with “When you turn the handlebars quickly, the bike might lean towards the ground. If that happens, put your foot down to stabilize yourself.”
💡 Does your child have a pedal bike with training wheels, and needs to practice balancing? Take the pedals and training wheels off of the bike for a little bit and use it as a balance bike! Being able to coast is the very last step in balancing without leg support.
“I’m going to time you! How long can you coast down the hill?! GO!”
Here are some of my favorite products for riding bikes! Let me know what questions you have.
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