One rainy Saturday in August we took our toddler for a boop around Canadian Tire early in the morning. We are all early risers and taking a toddler to the store is so much more manageable when the rest of the world is still at home enjoying their coffee and the morning news. At 8am there aren't many people in the store that he can bother as he runs around the aisles checking things out.
On this particular morning he came upon a line up of toddler bicycles. Of course they were all branded with Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, and other bright and inviting characters. And as it goes, we let him sit on a bike because we thought it would be fun for him. He immediately became obsessed with trying to ride it (surprise, surprise) and wanted to take it home. We managed to escape the store without the $99 tiny toddler bike and thought it was the end of it. But each time we pulled into our own garage after that our toddler saw our bikes and proclaimed that he wanted to ride them.
So, I commenced a Kijiji search and did find some toddler bikes in great condition for less than $50. There was even a Paw Patrol Skye bike that he would have been thrilled with because she is his favourite character... but I didn't pull the trigger because I figured we could let the idea die for the fall and winter and he'd be much better suited to learning to bike in the spring when he's three.
And then one afternoon we popped into Talize while out doing errands and toddler zeroed in on the perfect (in his mind) neon green and black 12" toddler bike with training wheels. It had flat tires but was only $12.99, so I took it as my sign as he started dragging it towards the front proclaiming "Go pay the lady? Take it home and daddy fix it?"
Needless to say, we took the bike home, Daddy met us in the driveway with his tools and we had the $12.99 bike in ship shape within 1/2 hour. We grabbed toddler's helmet and hit the sidewalk right away to see whether he could ride his bike like he was so excited to do. Let's just say the first attempt ended in frustration, tears and a lot of grunting as he struggled to get the idea of pedalling one foot after another.
A few days later we decided to toss the bike in the trunk of the car (aren't toddler accessories just so easy to haul around compared to adult-sized stuff? please stop growing, baby boy!) and head over to the nearby school yard. When we arrived there was a little boy, probably 4 years old, whizzing around on his bike without training wheels. This immediately piqued our toddler's interest and he was super inquisitive about how Henry was riding around so effortlessly. We used it as an opportunity to encourage him to push his pedals himself, and he made a bit of progress.
Then, husband came up with the idea of taking him up the gradual hill in the school yard and letting him coast down, removing the resistance of pedalling on flat ground. Toddler got a few easy pedals in and was really pleased with himself... that is until he cranked the handlebars to one side on one trip down the hill, toppling the bike over on top of himself which resulted in full on screaming and tears. Thank goodness he had his helmet on and was fine, but it totally prompted me to make a mental note that next spring we are getting him a Nutcase Little Nutty helmet that covers more of the back of his skull.
As a side note, a while ago I read that traditional bike helmets are really only appropriate head protection for biking. For activities that might result in a fall onto the back of the head, like skateboarding or scootering, a commuter or recreational style helmet like the Nutcase is more appropriate because it provides more protection all around. Toddler's original helmet was a MEC bike helmet because it provided more comfort in his bike trailer.
As you can imagine, that was that for bike riding lesson #2. But, the next day he was insistent we go to the school and try again so we obliged and when we unloaded the bike and put his helmet on, toddler started peddling immediately and off he went. I swear... he works on these things at night when he's asleep and wakes up knowing how to do it. He has done this with crawling, walking, talking... he waits until he's sure, and then just goes for it. The same day, he did more practice on an even lower grade hill and gained a lot of confidence in his pedaling.
So there you have it... toddler bike training in 3 slightly painful, slightly frustrating, but successful lessons. Stay tuned-- next spring we'll probably have a "how to wean your pre-schooler off training lessons" post!
How did you transition your toddler or pre-schooler from training wheels to two wheels?
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