I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike....

Today was the day. A day for learning new things. Joe learned how to plant blueberries, Cami learned how to occupy the attention of a pneumonia patient, and CALDER learned to ride a bike!! Yes, February 28, 2009, was a momentous day.

For a while now, our awesome neighbors/friends have been offering to let Calder have a bike that their son recently grew out of, complete with helmet. Poor Calder, in this day and age, not knowing how to ride a bike (or even have one) at the ripe old age of 7 is practically taboo.

Last night, Mike and Nathaniel brought over the bike offering for Calder. He was so excited! Mike is a bike guy, and even knows a lot about teaching kids how to ride bikes. He told us that it would only take a maximum of 10 minutes to teach Calder to ride a bike if we followed his instructions. He told us that he has taught many kids this way, and it only took 10 minutes for each one. Wow, that is pretty impressive, I thought. He is the kind of guy that you have a tendency to believe, so we took him up on his advice. Today Joe took Calder to the park to "teach" him to ride.

These were the instructions Mike gave us:

1- Put the seat all the way down so that the child's feet rest flat on the ground.

2- Next, take him to a place where there is a short grassy hill - grassy, for the "just in case" they fall they won't get hurt.(fortunately for us, we have a park that has this feature, not far from our house) He told us they won't fall though.

3- Instruct the child to position himself at the top of the hill, facing down, with feet on the ground.

4- Next, have the child lift his feet off the ground, and onto the pedals, and roll down the hill -don't pedal yet. Instruct them that if they feel like they are going to fall, just to put their feet down.

5- Do this about 10 times.

6- Next, tell them this time when they get to the bottom to start pedaling, again if they feel like they are going to fall, put their feet down.

7- Do this about 10 times, and by the end they will be riding a bike like a pro- Anywhere.

This is all it takes, according to what Mike has experienced teaching kids. (he also says don't EVER use training wheels it messes with their ability to learn to balance)



Well, We tried it. All I can say is ....... WOW!!! It really works. So amazing! Calder was even quicker than Mike said. He was balancing the first time down, Joe had to hold him back from pedaling right from the start. Within 2 minutes, Calder had had enough "teaching" and was begging to be let go so he could go ride on the paved path. Finally, he just stopped asking and took off onto the paved path, like a natural. It is so weird, like he already knew how to ride. Now he rides all over the place like he has been doing it for years, he even can go from a stopping position on level ground now. If you have a child of "bike" age, this is definitely the way to go, as far as teaching goes! I would HIGHLY recommend it!!



Here is our families newest bike rider in action:




Calder was happy to pose and ride for the camera, but finally he said "Mom, I am getting tired of this" I asked "you are tired of riding bikes?" and he said "No, of taking pictures.... Can't I just go ride my bike?!"

There you have it, a new skill, a new passion, and so much fun!