Bike Riding Progress

We were nearly two weeks into summer before I forced Shane to go outside and ride his bike.

That's right, forced.

Shane has avoided his bike like the plague, because he's afraid he may fall down. The kid will climb trees, jump off the back of trucks and perform stunts that threaten to give Carrie a heart attack, but he refused to touch his bike without a command.

No more.

And no progress was made. Shane did not want to pedal. If I pushed him, he'd let me balance for him. The moment I let go or wanted him to attempt to start on his own we got nowhere.

He was ready to go in after 3 minutes. I didn't let him. Tears flowed, but no sympathy was shown. I went hard and after 15 more minutes we still hadn't gotten anywhere.

I tried to break it down.
1 - Keep one foot on the ground
2 - Put the other foot on the pedal that's up high.
3 - Push down on the pedal to start going and go!

Shane was too panicky and kept trying to push the pedal that was already down and somehow hug the bike between his legs like it was going to run away without him.

Twenty minutes and the only results were sweat and tears.

Carrie came out and observed the tail end. She tried a little, too.

It only lasted a few minutes.

We decided it was time to put the training wheels back on. After half an hour of trying to force him to push through, it needed to become fun again.

Henry came out, and the boys rode around. They've been out multiple times since.

I couldn't help but notice, Henry was a better rider than Shane. Henry turns three next month. Shane's six and a half.

However, Henry has a balance bike. I watched as he picked up his feet and coasted down the street. I started to look up "How to teach a kid to ride a bike" online. I found a site that recommended I lower Shane's seat, take off the pedals, and turn it into a balance bike.

I haven't turned Shane's bike into balance bike, but he's all about Henry's now. Shane's even starting to coast on it all the way down the street (Note: normally he wears shoes and a helmet. I realized pretty quick that tiny bike can really start to move! Shane's avoided some epic wipe outs).

It's not a ton of progress, but we're at least thinking about it. That's always the first step.