Well technically I should have written this a while ago but life gets busy and here we are in the middle of August and I am just getting to it! You may have read my post about Ryley and his training wheels, well since writing that I have seen many statuses on FB from parents requesting info on how they can speed up the process of taking off the training wheels. Personally I don’t think there is much you can do, as each child will learn at their own pace and it usually takes a while before they get the hang of it or even want to ride a bike minus the training wheels, however, there are some exceptions, especially if your name happens to be Ryley.
It happened one morning about two weeks after we bought him the new red shiny bike with the training wheels. I was in the house with Thatcher and Tanner when I heard some commotion in the back yard. I went to take a look and there was Ryley by his new bike. When I asked him what he was doing he informed me that he was “fixing up his bike.” I saw a screwdriver on the patio and some screws but didn’t think much about it as Ryley is very much like his brother Joshua and has been able to work properly with “real” tools since he was even younger than his five years. Joshua of course has Asperger’s which explains a lot about his abilities to take things apart and rebuild them (he has even built a computer at twelve years of age!) however, we are not really sure why Ryley seems to have the same talent!
So I let it be and continued on with my daily chore of being my children’s slave. About half an hour later Ryley comes charging in and exclaims that he is riding his bike without training wheels. I knew this was going to happen but I was surprised it had happened so fast! Curious I went out to the back to see if his claims rang any truth to them.
Sure enough there was Ryley booting around on a two wheel BMX bike – only not his new shiny red bike but an older bike that had been given to us from a friend. I congratulated him and gushed over how talented he is – it’s obvious the genes are from my side;)
I asked him though why he wasn’t riding his new bike.
“Well,” he said, “I started to take the training wheels off by myself but one part wasn’t working so Joshua needs to finish it. Besides mom, I am just learning so I might fall once and I didn’t want to scratch my new bike!”
We all know that Ryley can be a smart aleck but I guess he is pretty “smart” as well! Happy riding bud!
What about your children? Did they learn to ride a two wheel bike quickly or did they take their time?
Until next time
Chantel, momof8crazymonkeys
My two were totally different. My older daughter was very motivated and gung-ho and got off her training wheels pretty quickly. My younger daughter was terrified and it took her a lot longer. Interestingly, they were the same with swimming. The older one would push away from me in the water even as a baby (of course I always kept a good hold on her) but the younger one was clinging to my bathing suit straps well after I thought she should be able to venture out dog-paddling on her own. Just goes to show how they are all individuals, eh?