Look, Mama, no training wheels!

This weekend we went practice cycling without training wheels!

We were not planning to start this weekend. In fact. I had planned a final bike ride with training wheels, but Beanie was keen to take them off, so I acquiesced.

We went to Beanie's school parking lot since its flat and there is a lot of space to practice.

Last year I had seen YouTube video on how to teach a kid to ride without training wheels, Basically you take the training wheels AND pedals off, and let them use their legs to move the bike and learn to glide. Sort of like Strider bikes (which we never used) but follow the same concept.

So, off we went with Beanie padded up with all her gear - helmet, of course, plus knee/hand/elbow pads, plus long pants and shirt.

At first of course it was difficult for her to handle the bike even when sitting on it and moving with her legs. But within about 10-15 min she figured out how to handle the weight and keep the bars straight. Soon she was able to move faster and by the end of 40 min was able to do tiny glides.

On Sunday, she wanted to try again so back we went. This time she was much more confident when walking the bike with her feet. The bike was straight and she had more control over it.

The parking lot  has a really gentle slope . She would sit on the bike and walk it up the length of the car park and then the very slight incline made the bike roll down gently and helped her practice rolling/gliding down. I could tell that she was getting a bit frustrated, since after a few seconds of gliding the bike would tip over.

I told her to relax and have fun!  It was a lovely sunny day with a nice breeze. I also told her that it will happen very quickly, one minute she will be trying and then bang she will get it

I think that helped and she started to have fun....and within about 10 min she was gliding -- feet off the ground across the parking lot!

It was amazing!

Basically between the Day 1 and Day 2 it had been less than an hour and my baby could balance a bike!

Soon she was confidently going all the way across the huge parking lot, and being about to weave and move the cycle this way and that way, with her feet off the ground.

I was so proud of her and she was so proud of herself!!

She did fall one time. That was because she did not stop the bike in time and while the bike slowed it was not fully stopped when it hit the curb at the other end. She got a tiny scrape on her leg since she had INSISTED on wearing cropped pants that day. Well, she has since figured out why I wanted her to wear long pants...oh well.

This coming weekend, we will pick up where we left off. We will practice more gliding without the pedals and then maybe the next day add the pedals in.

I expect by June she will be cycling like a big girl!!