How long to teach a six year old to ride a bike without training wheels

[Anonymous]

My husband and I just started to teach my daughter how to ride a two-wheeler w/o training wheels.

I'm curious and I don't remember how I learned--how long does this usually take?

Yesterday, we let he peddle and ran behind her holding the seat and then let go in small amounts. She went a few feet and then started to fall, so we grabbed her.

She is fairly coordinated.

Just curious!

When did your child learn to ride and how long did it take you to teach him/her?

thanks!

[Anonymous]

Lower the seat so she her feet can touch the ground, take her to a big wide open area (like an unused parking lot during the weekend), and let her try it out without you holding on. That's what worked for our kids--they were up and pedaling within 20 minutes.

[Anonymous]

I know this may sound weird, but lower the seat and take OFF the pedals for a week. let your DC get the hand of balancing with the ability to put her feet down if she gets out of balance. This worked for us with both of our children as we transitioned them from training wheels to "big kid" bikes.

[Anonymous]

Lower the seat so she her feet can touch the ground, take her to a big wide open area (like an unused parking lot during the weekend), and let her try it out without you holding on. That's what worked for our kids--they were up and pedaling within 20 minutes.

This worked for us - DD was 6.5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this may sound weird, but lower the seat and take OFF the pedals for a week. let your DC get the hand of balancing with the ability to put her feet down if she gets out of balance. This worked for us with both of our children as we transitioned them from training wheels to "big kid" bikes.

absolutely-took no more than three days for our kids-take the bike on a hill too, once they can balance without the pedals going pretty quick-put the pedals back on. Also, a scooter worked well to teach balance. I taught our 5 year old by having him ride his razor down our driveway-once he was proficient-went to the bike without pedals-he was riding in two days. There are actually tutorials on this on You Tube

[Anonymous]

The trick is to use a bike that is much smaller than the child needs. Lower the seat but if that doesn't work, buy a smaller bike at the thrift store or ask to borrow a friend's for a few weeks if available.

Find a street or hill with a very gentle incline and just have the child coast down the incline and walk back up and do it again -- no feet on the pedals. Just practice balancing.

Then, a friend told us to grab the child by the back of the Tshirt (kind of binch it up, don't hold by the neck!) so you don't have to stoop so much and just run down the incline holding the child by her Tshirt as she pedals.

[Anonymous]

My DS learned just before he turned 4 years old because he got a balance bike at age 3. It is a bike with seat but no pedals or chains. Kids push with their feet, glide, and learn to balance. After a year of riding his balance bike, it took him less than an hour of going down a grassy hill with his bike without training wheels to learn how to pedal. He went right from the balance bike to a bike without training wheels (we told the bike shop to take off the training wheels and to cut the seat post so it could be in the shortest position possible). If you have younger kids invest in a balance bike (Skuut or there are other brands) and skip the training wheels. All of his friends who have had balance bikes are riding two wheeled bikes without training wheels at age 4 -so it isn't that my kid is so incredibly talented.

[Anonymous]

It tok my 6 yr old about 2-3 hrs of practice. We started coasting down a grassy hill and once he had enough balance, we went to a flat empty parking lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The trick is to use a bike that is much smaller than the child needs. Lower the seat but if that doesn't work, buy a smaller bike at the thrift store or ask to borrow a friend's for a few weeks if available.

Find a street or hill with a very gentle incline and just have the child coast down the incline and walk back up and do it again -- no feet on the pedals. Just practice balancing.

Then, a friend told us to grab the child by the back of the Tshirt (kind of binch it up, don't hold by the neck!) so you don't have to stoop so much and just run down the incline holding the child by her Tshirt as she pedals.

avoid this by doing the no pedal thing-no need to run with your child at all-defeats the purpose actually since the child needs to balance on their own before the pedals go back on

[Anonymous]

14:30 here. Agree that time on a scooter seemed really helpful in teaching our kids to balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The trick is to use a bike that is much smaller than the child needs. Lower the seat but if that doesn't work, buy a smaller bike at the thrift store or ask to borrow a friend's for a few weeks if available.

Find a street or hill with a very gentle incline and just have the child coast down the incline and walk back up and do it again -- no feet on the pedals. Just practice balancing.

Then, a friend told us to grab the child by the back of the Tshirt (kind of binch it up, don't hold by the neck!) so you don't have to stoop so much and just run down the incline holding the child by her Tshirt as she pedals.

avoid this by doing the no pedal thing-no need to run with your child at all-defeats the purpose actually since the child needs to balance on their own before the pedals go back on

We did the no pedal thing a lot (although we left the pedals on) but found we still needed to do a bit of running behind the child in a parking lot, helping him get the hang of using the pedals while staying upright. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The trick is to use a bike that is much smaller than the child needs. Lower the seat but if that doesn't work, buy a smaller bike at the thrift store or ask to borrow a friend's for a few weeks if available.

Find a street or hill with a very gentle incline and just have the child coast down the incline and walk back up and do it again -- no feet on the pedals. Just practice balancing.

Then, a friend told us to grab the child by the back of the Tshirt (kind of binch it up, don't hold by the neck!) so you don't have to stoop so much and just run down the incline holding the child by her Tshirt as she pedals.

avoid this by doing the no pedal thing-no need to run with your child at all-defeats the purpose actually since the child needs to balance on their own before the pedals go back on

We did the no pedal thing a lot (although we left the pedals on) but found we still needed to do a bit of running behind the child in a parking lot, helping him get the hang of using the pedals while staying upright. YMMV.

if the pedals are still on you didn't really do it-kind of maybe but you should not have to run along, behind whatever-if done right it is so simple and quick

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The trick is to use a bike that is much smaller than the child needs. Lower the seat but if that doesn't work, buy a smaller bike at the thrift store or ask to borrow a friend's for a few weeks if available.

Find a street or hill with a very gentle incline and just have the child coast down the incline and walk back up and do it again -- no feet on the pedals. Just practice balancing.

Then, a friend told us to grab the child by the back of the Tshirt (kind of binch it up, don't hold by the neck!) so you don't have to stoop so much and just run down the incline holding the child by her Tshirt as she pedals.

avoid this by doing the no pedal thing-no need to run with your child at all-defeats the purpose actually since the child needs to balance on their own before the pedals go back on

We did the no pedal thing a lot (although we left the pedals on) but found we still needed to do a bit of running behind the child in a parking lot, helping him get the hang of using the pedals while staying upright. YMMV.

if the pedals are still on you didn't really do it-kind of maybe but you should not have to run along, behind whatever-if done right it is so simple and quick

well, the pedals were still on but the bike was very loiw, and the chidlren glided very gently down a long incline for quite a while without putting their feet on the pedals. So yeah, it really was a no-pedals kind of thing.

And they did get good balance -- while gliding.

But when they finally put their feet ON the pedals, they did need a bit of running behind until they got up to speed.

[Anonymous]

We just did this with our 6yo last weekend -her bike is a little small and we kept the seat low so she could put her feet down - I ran behind her a few times - she practiced in the driveway on her own and by the end of the day she was a pro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just did this with our 6yo last weekend -her bike is a little small and we kept the seat low so she could put her feet down - I ran behind her a few times - she practiced in the driveway on her own and by the end of the day she was a pro.

kind of OT but it reminded me that when my DS was 5 1/2 it was warm around thanksgiving and he managed to first paddle around without training wheels on our driveway, and boy was i a proud parent. it soon turned cold so he never had a chance to ride again, and come next spring he actually forgot how to ride and asked for training wheels back on. it took him another month or so to be riding again.