After we’d made the mistake of acquiring a 2nd-hand bicycle that was too big for Jon – doh! – I did start looking into it more seriously. I found this article http://www.ibike.org/education/teaching-kids.htm and fully accept what they say:

“You can put training wheels are a child’s bike, but this does more to make the “bicycle” ride-able at a younger age, than do anything that teaches bicycling…. In any case when the training wheels come off the bicycle learning sequence generally starts pretty much at the beginning.”

Getting a child onto a balance bike (if you can afford one) early on is probably the best option but I think we missed that boat. By the time he was begging for his own bike, Jon had already mastered the little bikes-fitted-with-stabilisers at nursery. (He was never much good with tricycles, finding the direct-drive pedals too much work.)

Having lost the advantage of early-stabiliser-free-training, we have taken the easy option to make the bike (now swapped for a better -not perfect- size) ride-able. I’m trusting that once Jon gets to an age where he’s more physically in control of his muscles and the bicycle, it’ll come easily enough – I only have my experience to work on, but I live in hope!
Jx

Now, I want to chip in about the cycling. (Sorry, I’m a bike geek!).

There may be very good reasons why you’ve chosen stabilisers but I wanted to check that you were fully informed because actually they’re not a very good way to learn to ride. The most difficult skills to learn are learning, balancing and leaning into turns and stabilisers hinder this process by getting the child to STEER round corners, rather than LEAN into them.

There’s a really good article on it here: http://www.bikehub.co.uk/featured-articles/teaching-your-child-to-ride-a-bike/

Now, I obviously have no personal experience of this (though I have watched a child on a pedal-less scooter-style bike and it’s a joy to watch), and it may well be that you know about this and have chosen, perhaps due to Durham’s topography, to use stabilisers. But just thought I’d pass on what I know.

It’s always great to read what you guys are up to and I hope you enjoy the holidays/placement ahead.

Love to you all!