These pictures from a family bike ride in April mark the last ride for K with training wheels, not to mention the last time we'll take that route - we were right next to the highway the whole time which is not the most ideal setting if you ask us. (but please notice that crazy C bike rider! Shes a different child when on her skuut bike. A complete kamikaze!)
K rode her Skuut balance bike
from the time she was three up until her sixth birthday when Nana and Grandpa bought her first 'real bike'. (We have had too many skuut adventure posts and photographs to try to link to them here, but here is just one of them.) It really served it's purpose well and was worth the money we spent on it. C is now the official rider and one day Baby L will get his turn as well. But I did have a moment of doubt about it.When K got her birthday bike I admit I was a tiny bit disappointed that we needed training wheels on it. Let me clarify I was not disappointed in her in any way - goodness no, but in the balance bike theory. The way I understood it was that if a child rides a balance bike they skip the training wheel phase when they move on to a pedal bike, making bike riding easier and more enjoyable for them. Us putting training wheels on her bike just seemed to squash that. She rode her bike every now and then (it was a bit too cold here to go out riding for the first few months of owning her bike) but complained that it was too hard and didn't really ride for very long.
Then in the middle of April Kevin's work schedule cleared up just enough to give him the free time to help K out. He wanted her to try riding with out the training wheels to see if that would make it more fun for her. I was a bit nervous over it, she seemed so wobbly on her bike and well... balancing while pedaling and watching where you are going just seemed like so much at once (then again who am I to judge that. I was around the age of ten when I learned to ride a bike). Kevin had her wear jeans to protect her legs from any possible falls (yep, that's why she isn't in a skirt for once) and then he took her to an empty parking lot off our mountain. He told me that after he took off the training wheels, she picked it up within a half hour at the most. She just took off! These pictures are from when they came home and she showed me her new skill.
Now she rides her bike as happy and as crazy as C rides hers. Some nights Kevin will take her on bike rides with him as he exercises our dogs and they can't keep up with her! There is no looking back now. To think, these past 6 months the training wheels were hindering instead of helping her. I wish we figured that out sooner but she's making up for that lost time though, believe me! And all that silly disappointment I felt over our balance bike is long gone and replaced with gratitude. We know now that when it's C's turn to graduate on to a pedal bike we'll not even bother with the training wheels and just let her have at it.
Yay K, I am (forever and always)so very proud of you!!
