On Bicycles

Teaching Patrick to ride a bicycle hasn't been easy. It is not a skill that has come naturally and Andy and I have been short of opportunities to teach him or even inspire him to practice.

For at least three years, we have been failing to help him master a tricycle or a bicycle (with or without training wheels). At some point, we decided pedaling, balancing, and steering was too much for him to figure out at once, so we gave up on the bike and got him a scooter. We had a summer of frustration with the scooter, too.

Then, this spring, his grandparents came to visit for two weeks and met him at the bus stop after school every day with the scooter. That was the magic. For two weeks, he scooted the block and a half home every day. Andy and I heard stories about his improvement, but he wouldn't show us.

After my parents left, I started walking to meet him at the school bus with the scooter and he improved rapidly. At the same time, we got scooters and balance bikes for the trio. Balance bikes are undersized bikes without pedals used for learning how to balance and steer. Once everybody had bikes and scooters, it became possible to hang out on the driveway every so often with everybody playing with whatever suited their fancy. Within a few weeks, Patrick had mastered the scooter.

For Patrick and the bicycle, the moment of magic was when a babysitter got him out on the driveway using an undersized bike as a balance bike. He was able to take the balance and steering he had learned on the scooter and transfer them to the balance bike. By regularly meeting him at the bus stop with the undersized bike, I gave him an opportunity to master the balance bike in small practice sessions.

In the past week, he spontaneously started trying to pedal the undersized bike but was unable to squeeze himself into a position to make it possible. At the same time, he has been unwilling to try the bigger bike.

Today, I took a risk and took the big bike instead of the undersized bike when we went to meet Patrick. At the bus stop, he complained he was not ready for the big bike yet, but got on anyway. After a few false starts, he managed to get himself pedaling. As he turned onto our street and got the extra momentum of a downward incline, he got it all together for a glorious 10 yards before braking hard. Beaming, he turned for me to acknowledge his success, which I did.

He still is a long way from just getting on his bike and riding, but it looks like this will be the summer Patrick learns to ride a bike.