My son knows how to ride his bike. He doesn't get as many opportunities to ride as he would like, but he knows how. This is a great relief to me because I was terrified to teach him. I don't have a bike, so I couldn't take him out on nightly rides around the neighborhood until he was practiced enough to remove the training wheels. Also, we live in NYC where it really isn't practical to ride around the block because you will probably get hit by a bus. Ideally, I would live in a place where taking off the training wheels wouldn't be a problem.
Like this place:
That kid can fall off his bike all he wants; he won't get hurt.
But we live in Harlem, and we must adjust. One year ago, the little goober decided he was ready to try riding without training wheels, so we woke up early and went to the playground before the ball players and other kids arrived. I reminded him that it would be okay to fall and that we would just try as many times as we needed to get it right.
He was ready.
I held his seat, he started pedaling, he took off, I was proud.
Instead of crashing and screaming in pain, this kid was riding his bike and loving it.
He's a pro. Even if he needed my help to get started, he kept riding.
With a little more practice he got started by his own wobbly self.
It wasn't the ideal place to teach him, but when are we ever in the ideal place to teach our kids?
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