Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Riding bike ?

My son didn't learn to ride a bike or swim until he was 11, although not for lack of opportunity or even interest. He had always had difficulties with motor coordination, and these tasks just took more than he had. He started doing horseback riding regularly when he was 10, and I think that that was probably the biggest factor in him finally developing the coordination to swim and ride a bike. Once he finally learned, practically the only way to get him off the bike was to get him into the pool.

DD is almost 7 and has just learned. I have to say, this has surely been the hardest thing she has ever done in her young life. I am very proud of her. She too was getting embarrassed that kids much younger than her could do this. Fear was a huge problem.

I was a little surprised at this thread. I grew up where everyone went from trike to bike. It was just what you did, like learning to tie your shoes because there wasn't any velcro.

And when DD was 4, we took off the training wheels. She practiced a little every morning (bikes are only allowed on the beach path before 9 am) and within a week she was riding pretty well.

For a forum that desperately wants acceleration for their kids why do people give into kids' fears instead of teaching them to work at something that is hard for them to teach them good habits? Not everything is going to wait for them to be ready, they may lose opportunity while they wait for the anxiety to subside.

Ren

I think most of us are not trying to accelerate our children, but just trying to keep up with their development. And although my children learned to ride bikes when they were 4 and 3 with very little assistance from me, I do not see how I would have been able to make them read at age 2. Children have to meet certain developmental milestones to be ready to ride a bike, or to read, or write. Those milestones rarely can be reached by force.

Yeah wren, I think you're a little off on that. While I support teaching a kid to ride a bike I think skipping grades is for kid's that are born gifted and/or ambitious,* don't think that's up to the parents to really want a grade skip for the kid. What I think is the parents place is to know what the kid needs and educate the locals if they wanna be all PC and say nobody's kid is special.

*I'm a little confused on the point that high achievement isn't always gifted. it's at least talented, right?

Hey, maybe you've got the touch. Maybe you're a re-incarnated shaman so you can guide people on their path past the fear. Too bad that's not contagious.

Amen. Yeah that. Stitch it on a pillow sister. Ain't that the truth.
However, that other part. Yeah that stuff can be taught early. Here's the boy's handwriting while he was still 2 and yep, I taught him that. Not by force, by patience and persistence and a few minutes a day for many months. Yes, I've heard. Nothing good can come of it and it's a waste of time. Obviously we have too much time on our hands.
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/7066e3b5.jpg

DD was in no way physically ready to ride a 2-wheeler at 4. She actually did not even learn to pedal till 4. She has some mild motor delays. Also, she is very freaked out by physical injury. While I certainly want to teach my kids to persevere, forcing a screaming, terrified child to try to learn to do something that requires calm and self-confidence in order to not get hurt does not sound like a good plan.

My son didn't ride until he was 11 because he had and has motor delays and neurologically-based coordination problems that he has been very persistent in working hard to overcome with the help of PT and OT. He loves to ride his bike now, but he still can't reliably tie his shoes, and is it certainly not because he or we are lazy or coddling him.

I'll vouch for this item. This is exactly what it took before my then-nine-year-old was willing to really learn. She, too, was a super-cautious kid; she had taken a single minor spill off of her little bicycle (with training wheels, no less) when she was about five, and then all but refused to learn after that.

On another, related note, we can vouch for the joys of Play-It-Again Sports for inexpensive kids' bicycles.
Balance Buddy = twenty bucks, two afternoons jogging at a local university campus with grassy commons and nicely paved flat pathways ~100 yards long, and virtually no tears at all. From anyone, I mean.

We used the incentive of a beautiful new Electra cruiser for her tenth birthday as an additional lure for learning. She loves that bicycle, and it should still fit her okay even when she's a young adult.

(While it is true that this is an "optional" activity-- if you happen to live in a very bike-centric area, as those of us on the West coast tend to, it becomes a significant social issue if you can't ride.)