[blparent] Teaching a Sighted Child to Ride a Bike

[Michael Baldwin]

Taught the first child , the second did it on her own one day out of no
where, and working on the third this summer. DD1 Was 9 when she finally got
it, and dd2 was a few days shy of her 7th birthday, dd3 is 7 next month, I
am not worried about ds1, he just turned 3.
 Did the standard run behind and an extra push off when I let go. With dd1
and dd3 it seems the issue is that they wanted to watch the handle bars, and
they would start turning them back and forth to help maintain balance, and
that doesn't work. 
We also went to a public place with a long, slight grassy decline, and dd1
could coast her bike down the hill holding her feet up and work on balance
without peddling. They built a new school building there so I can not do
that with dd3.
It is also easier to learn on a larger bike. The larger the tire, the more
centrifugal force that is created to help maintain balance. Of course don't
want it too big for the child either. IMO 18-20 are best, 16 will work if
child is short, and 12 don't even bother with.
I also put the training wheels up as high as they will go. The extra lean
makes them think they are falling, and they try to get away from that and
lean the other way. Has not completely worked for any of mine, but
eventually I guess one would learn to find center and balance there. I think
it helps.
I also offer the added benefit of a new bike when they learn without
training wheels.

Good luck.
Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: BlParent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jo
Elizabeth Pinto via BlParent
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2017 12:56 AM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Cc: Jo Elizabeth Pinto
Subject: [blparent] Teaching a Sighted Child to Ride a Bike

Hi everybody. Have any of you taught your children to ride their bikes? My
daughter is nine and sighted, and I haven't had much luck at this. She has a
bike, but her training wheels are still on. She's embarrassed to ride now,
since most of her friends have been without training wheels for a few
summers, at least. I've walked behind her, or rather jogged now, for a few
years. She can ride independently with the training wheels, but I can't seem
to get her over the hump to where she can balance without them. The thing
is, I can't run fast enough with her to hold her up so she can stay in
balance and have me let go so she'll maintain speed and keep the bike
sailing along on her own. The hard truth is that I'm not liable to get any
help from her sighted dad on this one. He claims his knees are bad. I'm not
sure I believe that, but whether I believe it or not isn't really relevant.
She has a three-wheeled scooter, but it's on its last wobbles, and she needs
to learn to ride her bike. Any ideas?


Jo Elizabeth Pinto

"The Bright Side of Darkness"
Is my award-winning novel,
Available in Kindle, audio, and paperback formats.
http://www.amazon.com/author/jepinto


_______________________________________________
BlParent mailing list
BlParent at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
BlParent:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/mbaldwin%40gpcom.net