Ride like the Wind

Kanyon learned how to ride a bicycle this summer. He's never had any interest in years past to ride a 2-wheeler; he's always been satisfied with riding his tricycle. But in June that changed: we visited my brother Mick's family, and he rode his cousin Abby's 2-wheel bike with training wheels and loved it. He learned that he could go faster on a bike than he could his trike.

 

In July, he decided to try one of his brother's hand-me-down bikes. I put some training wheels on it, and he rode around our driveway, but he didn't like it. It's a lot harder riding on gravel than it is pavement and sidewalks! He figured it was just the bike that was causing him problems, because it wasn't going as smoothly as his cousin Abby's bike. I tried explaining the reasoning behind his constant tipping over, but he wasn't listening. He decided he would just try a different bike without training wheels. So, I lowered the seat of another hand-me-down bike from his older brothers, and helped him onto the bike. I held onto him as he rode down the driveway and back, but he was even more dissatisfied riding without training wheels. So, I promised him that I would take him to the church parking lot that week so that he could practice riding with training wheels on the concrete.

 

On the last day of July, we loaded up the boys' bikes into the truck and headed to the church parking lot in the evening. He practiced riding round and round the sidewalk and was feeling confident in his riding skills. So he declared that he wanted his training wheels off to ride his bike without them. Josh took the bike to his work (we didn't have the right tools with us) and took off the extra training wheels and the boys and I stayed at the church, laying in the shade waiting for him to return. When he came back, we were playing at the school's playground across the street. Josh helped Kanyon balance a little bit as he rode on his bike around the asphalt on the schoolyard, but he was getting frustrated that he couldn't keep it straight without help, so we took a break.  

About a half hour later, he was ready to try again, and this time, he did it without help. We were amazed at his abilities and how quickly he'd picked up the skill!

We took him back to the church parking lot a few days later to practice riding again on the concrete. He did so well, and he can now ride without a problem on the gravel. He's been riding his bike a lot since then, and he really enjoys it! He loves how much faster/easier it is to ride than his tricycle. It's been a delight to see him learn a new skill and watch how happy it makes him to master it!