Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Bicycle Bugaboo

I will second the suggestion for a balance bike (bought or created). We took the pedals off both our kids' bikes and let them use them as balance bikes for as long as they wanted. We didn't bother taking off the chains. We found the best place to bike was at the local elementary school, which has a large area of blacktop that is slightly sloped. We also gave frequent rewards (usually jellybeans) for completing small goals.

The training wheels did not seem to help, and it wasn't until we took the pedals off that we started to see progress.

It took both kids over a year to learn, and DD7 is still not confident enough to bike anywhere but the school blacktop. Definitely worth the patience!

Glad to see this post, as i am thinking should I buy a balancing bike for my DS3.5, he seems interested in his friend's balancing bike but refuse to use bike with training wheels. He likes his trike anyways, may be I should wait for next yr to buy him one :P

Balance bike..... Best thing ever. Training wheels teach bad habits which make the kids fall when the training wheels come off. Balance bikes are safer for beginners, teaching balance before pedaling. We let our then 2yr old ride it through the house all year long. By the time he turned 3 he was all set for pedals. It took him all of 15 minutes to master. Not because he's a bicycle genius but because of the balance bike.

balance bikes are massively popular here - my dd hated hers, but ds 2 loves it.DD would not ride a bike at all, a friend of mine tried to force her once - that went very bad. We started going to a hbike park with a playground attached, DD eventually asked for her pedal bike and rode no problems. She just didn't like feeling like she didn't know what she was doing. Watching other kids ride helped her get the idea.

Also maybe a scooter is a better idea. I know in our area most kids have a scooter, but bigger kids tend not to have bikes as there aren't many places safe to ride them right now. I'd be surprised if your DC was the only one with a scooter at bring a bike day. Maybe chat to the teacher.