We live on 10 acres with a huge driveway. Two kids love to ride their bikes and one child could care less.
The ten year old would rather climb, dig in the dirt, play in the creek and explore.

I am not worried.

Learning how to bike and swim are both essential. You don't want your kid to sit out while other kids are having fun (and possibly making fun of or thinking badly of) your kid. Save them the embarrassment. Some kids will take 30 minutes to learn and some may take several hours. But do teach them somehow.

Anonymous wrote:OP,

Some kids have vestibular issues and balancing is difficult. I'm posting this from the SN section, but not implying anything just trying to help you connect with a class:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/263496.page#2814006

http://www.baltimoreschild.com/articles/index.cfm?fuse1=detail&ArticleID=1934

http://icanshine.org/

The YMCA used to offer a bike riding camp over the summer.

Also, OT (Occupational Therapists) sometimes work on bike riding.

Don't make this a battle but something enjoyable.

+1

DD was like this and it became a battle. She never learned and she's now a teen. I don't think you can win if its a power struggle, but good luck.

I feel more strongly about swimming. Thats a safety issue, kids need to know how to swim.

OP,

Some kids have vestibular issues and balancing is difficult. I'm posting this from the SN section, but not implying anything just trying to help you connect with a class:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/263496.page#2814006

http://www.baltimoreschild.com/articles/index.cfm?fuse1=detail&ArticleID=1934

http://icanshine.org/

The YMCA used to offer a bike riding camp over the summer.

Also, OT (Occupational Therapists) sometimes work on bike riding.

Don't make this a battle but something enjoyable.

Anonymous wrote:See if dc will learn to ride a razor scooter. That uses many of the same balance skills. Then once totally at ease on the scooter try a bike with the pedals removed. Then when dc asks for the pedals put them on.

Or as other posters say, just let the issue go. Bike riding...eh.

Agree about razr scooter--huge help for us with then-7 yo. I was pretty sure he wasn't going to learn until he was much older since he's not terribly coordinated, nor was he terribly motivated. (But we also didn't make a big deal about it--like some PPs, our "must" was swimming, not biking.)

After he got comfortable on the scooter, we took the training wheels off and let him mess around on the bike mostly on his own. Now and then one of us would help him balance himself and pedal. Then one day he was doing it on his own. It was pretty amazing.

But if you can't not make a big deal about it, a class is probably the way to go to eliminate some of the pressure dynamic.

One of my kids took a break from bike riding for two years....just didn't want to do it after we took the training wheels off. One day she rode a smaller bike with training wheels and felt perfectly fine. Then we tried her old bike without the training wheels and she got it right away. being taller with a small bike helped her feel more confident.

My son's best friend learned to ride her bike right before her 8th birthday!
It was a combination of factors - she was fearful of losing control when learning to balance,despite being an excellent gymnast, and her parents are pushover types that had never enforced anything much, so did not know how to handle resistance like this.

I suggested the REI class to them, but in the end the mother stepped up and regularly acclimated her daughter to the bike. To mimic the balance bike experience (at that age you'll have difficulty finding a balance bike that fits, but it's really the best way to learn to bike), her daughter first learned to coast with her feet close to the ground, without using the pedals. Then when she could balance for short periods of time (both feet off the ground), she tried to pedal. It took the whole summer and my friend's back really hurt (hence my initial REI suggestion)! But now her daughter can successfully guide her bike, pedal and stop. Starting sometimes required a push and she can't navigate sidewalks yet, but it will come.

Good luck. Quiet persistence pays off. Watch your back please when holding the bike seat: switch arms, do short but frequent lessons.

I was 9 when I learned how to ride a bike (and I wasn't the school nerd or anything. I had friends and played outdoors). I was just so embarrassed to have made it that long without learning. All of the other kids knew, but somehow I didn't because my parents weren't athletic. I still hate baseball because I never learned from my parents. Somehow all the other kids were taught how to hit balls, but I didn't know how.

When I finally learned how to ride I wore my rollerblading arm and knee pads and a helmet. I was pretty scared, but my parents made me.

I think figuring out why he or she is refusing is important.

My DD was scared of falling. I totally get that. I think she was also scared of failure. She did tell me that I had to teach her b/c "Daddy isn't patient enough". I reassured her that the worst that would happen is that she would scrape a knee, ankle or elbow, but she would live. I reminded her that she wasn't born knowing how to walk or ski, but she learned to do both. She also fell several times learning to walk and ski, and she lived through it. I told her that the kids who she saw riding bikes had worked hard to learn, that it takes time.

Once she was willing to try, I put old socks on the pedals of her bike (so they wouldn't scrape her legs), and just had her coast from on side of an empty parking lot to the other. No need to pedal, just coast with the legs sticking out to the sides for balance. And when she was ready she could put her feet on the pedals, but no need to pedal. And then one day she put her feet on the pedals and started pedaling.

Now she asks to go for a bike ride most weekends, and especially loves riding with her Daddy.

REI does teach classes. I believe you can also hire the instructors to give private lessons, too.

interesting, i have a 6 yo who has no interest. we went to toys r us to buy one and he sat on one and decided it was not for him. Poor guy this may be a sign of things to come. Im glad they have classes for these things.

We had the same issue, DD (then 6) would not touch the bike even though she was the one who initially wanted to buy it. Sent her along with the bike to a summer bike camp, signed her up for 2 weeks, just in case (of being a slow learner). Within day 3 she was up and running...ahem...spinning

My 12 year old dd would never get on a bike. It freaks her out (yet she loves huge scary roller coasters...go figure)
I stopped pushing around 10. One day as a teen or young woman, her boyfriend will offer to teach her, and I'm sure she'll let him

OP - my own kids were eager to learn how to ride their bikes so that is not a battle that I had to fight, myself. However, I did see other kids dig in their heels and really refuse to learn how to ride.

The good news is that by about the age of 12 they were all riding their bikes. It took peer pressure, lots of peer pressure.

Yea, will he ride a balance bike?

http://www.kidsbalancebikes.com/all-balance-bikes/metal-balance-bikes/16-balance-bikes-for-kids-5-10-yrs/