Over the weekend, we took the kids to a favorite local park so they could have more sidewalk to ride their new scooters. (Our hallway has seen some action over the break.) Burl and Fern picked the "honeycomb park" where there are several bug-themed playgrounds.
The park reaches all the way to the river, so we love stopping to throw rocks. We always get the "do sharks/whales/dolphins live in this water" questions.
Two sweet milestones happened while we were there:
Fern went into her shell and was determined that pushing her scooter on the sidewalk was too hard. There were tears, and I ended up carrying the scooter for a while. After we played, she found her confidence and worked hard. She strolled and laughed and enjoyed herself. Overcoming her mental blocks is not always easy (and I often can't help her), but I get beyond excited when she conquers the hurdles.
The other milestone was that Burl learned to ride his bike without training wheels. There are a lot of jokes and stories about potty training or eating vegetables, but I haven't seen anything about teaching kids to ride a bike. Sprinting hunched over, holding a toddler on a bike is REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY HARD. My brother who helps train professional runners even had a hard time when he helped a few weeks ago. (We're also re-thinking balance bikes for the next kids we teach.)
More than potty training, teaching Burl to ride his bike without training wheels was very exciting. It was a huge milestone for us. He worked hard and we all exercised as much patience with each other, and it paid off.
He was proud and excited, and it was thrilling for each of us!
These days of teaching and growing and firsts are such a joy!
After teaching 6 kids to ride bikes, I have to say your best decision was taking him to the park. It is easiest to learn when you have long expanses of riding area, each time you have to get them started they have plenty of distance to practice balancing before they have to turn or stop. Several of our boys learned to ride while we camped, they went round and round the loop with 2 training wheels, then with 1, and usually by the end of the weekend they were on two wheels with no training wheels. Our daughter learned at church camp but it was all her big brothers and their friends who ran alongside and encouraged her. They just came to find me when she was riding!
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