Balancing Act

-
Jason has finally entered into the ranks of those who can ride a two wheeler.

Last year a training wheel broke on his bicycle, so I took both off and tried to teach him to ride on only two wheels. He did not yet have the balance necessary to do it. As well, he had a tendency to play up the instability by shouting, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoooooooa!” and then falling off his bike (he did the same this past winter when I tried to teach him to skate). He preferred to go for the dramatic spill to actually riding his bike (or skating) - it was more fun for him.

The previous weekend, I took him on his bike again and doing that awkward stooped run behind him as he peddled I gradually increased the amount of time I let him ride on his own. Finally at the end of the day he was able to ride the last half block to the house on his own.

During the week, Sofia took him out and helped him to practice. This past weekend, he is now able to ride on his own, the only help he needs is a little push to get him going, but once he is going, then he is fine.

It is a great accomplishment for him and he is very proud of himself - as are we.

Comments

ghee said…
Oh,I can relate so well.

I remember my daughters.My eldest took a week to ride her two wheeler bike.
My youngest was a fast learner! They both ride a bike when they were 5 yrs.old.My youngest,Ally rode the bike as soon as she put her feet on the pedal,thinking that her father was in his back,holding the bike for her.She was surprised herself when she noticed that no one was there to guide her.But she rode it from the very beginning.

How old is Jason,Richard?Congratulate him from me :D
July 17, 2006 11:16 AM
Richard said…
Jason is 4 (he will be 5 in October). Tania learned when she was 4 as well.

I had hopes Jason might learn to bike sooner because he is very well balanced. He started walking at 9 months, was skateboarding when he was 3, so I figured biking and skating shouldn't be a problem for him. I think he was having more fun falling down than trying to accomplish the tasks.
July 17, 2006 12:23 PM
Mother of Invention said…
Ah, independence with the wind in your face! And he shows a flair for drama!
My next door neighbour taught all 3 of us kids to ride bikes in much the same way and then treated us to ice cream. Personally, I think it was the ice cream that did it!!!

Congrats to Jason!
July 17, 2006 12:55 PM
my imperfect offering said…
Aw, congrats to Jason! I'm too late to offer my own bit of self-discovered advice about teaching a kid to ride a bike, but I found that when running alongside the bike, my kids learned faster when I held onto their shoulders (as opposed to my holding onto the back of the bike seat).
July 17, 2006 5:00 PM
Barbara said…
I'm sure every one of us remembers that day when we rode alone for the first time. We remember who was last holding onto the seat. We remember the feeling of freedom to be on two wheels going solo. Congratulations to your son. Mark down the day so he will always remember it!
July 17, 2006 6:45 PM
Richard said…
MOI: oh, yes, he enjoys the freedom now.

MIO: it was an assortment of holding the seat, holding his shoulder, basically doing two things at once: (1) making sure he was on his own, (2) being around to catch him if he fell.

I try not to hold my kids, since then they lean on me and don't learn to balance on their own. When I taught Tania to skate, Sofia thought I was cruel not to offer her my hand, but the truth is Tania learned quickly because she learned not to lean on me, but to balance on the skates.

barbara: you remember learning to ride your bike. Wow! I am afraid it is too far in my past to recall. Maybe it was not as momentous an even tfor me as it should have been. I tend to be a little muted on the emotional response side of things.
July 18, 2006 12:45 PM
Mother of Invention said…
It just struck me reading these that, what you said to MIO, starting with, "I try not to hold.." could very well be a metaphor for your general approach to your kids in life matters, and a good one I should think!
July 18, 2006 6:31 PM
Richard said…
MOI: Letting go of your kids and letting them grow on their own is hard. Even though mine ar eonly 4 and 7, it is hard to give them greater autonomy. I remember I used to play outside by myself when I was younger than Tania. I remember my brother used to go to the park by himself when he was 3 (ok, it was across the street). He used to wake up at 05:00 and that was too early for my mother to go and play with him, since we lived in a safe area, she let im go by himself. As a parent, I find it hard to let my kids out of my sight. A few weeks back, when we went to see the movie Cars, they needed to go to the washroom. The first time I went with them, the second time I let them go by themselves - it was hard, but they appreciated the freedom and trust (this was a matinee showing with very few people in the theatre, I would have had different ideas if the theatre was packed).
July 18, 2006 7:37 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chinese Wisdom Concerning Money

-
[19September-2007 @ 17:11 EST: Revised preamble. This page still gets the most search hits: There is no Anthony de Croud. The e-mail is SPAM. I post things that pique my fancy at the moment. I like the 8 precepts, but the rest of the e-mail is junk. However, I thought it fair to post everything in its entirety. I did not write the e-mail. I did not forward the e-mail. I strongly encourage you not to forward it either. (I also encourage you to reply to whomever sent you the e-mail and tell them you don't appreciate getting junk mail.)] Received this in our e-mail (English translation follows): PRECEPTO CHINO SOBRE EL DINERO EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CASA, PERO NO UN HOGAR, EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN RELOJ, PERO NO EL TIEMPO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CAMA, PERO NO EL SUEÑO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN LIBRO, PERO NO EL CONOCIMIENTO. EL DINERO PUEDE PAGAR UN MÉDICO, PERO NO LA SALUD. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA POSICIÓN, PERO NO EL RESPETO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR LA SANGRE, PERO ...
Read more

Chicken Menses

-
Image
A friend of mine is an ovo-lactic vegetarian. This means that in addition to the plant matter he consumes, he also consumes dairy products and eggs. Dairy products I can accept, but eggs? … hmm, I wasn’t so sure - it sounds a bit like those vegetarians who say they eat chicken and fish. After all, the egg is an animal product. His answer was simple and satisfying, "Eggs are chicken menses. The hen will produce an egg whether she is fertilized or not. Unfertilized eggs are the discarded products of ovulation akin to menses in mammals." Image grabbed from here .
Read more

Why you should regularly visit your dentist.

-
I hadn't been to my dentist since May-2004 (normally I went on weekends, but since Sofia and the kids moved to Montreal, I am not in Ottawa on the weekends). Last night, as I was munching on some cashews, I felt a pain in one of my molars and then some grit in my mouth. I went and washed it out, assuming that maybe there had been a stone or something amount the cashews. Turns out I noticed a hole in the surface of the molar (top right, second from the back, my wisdom teeth were removed years ago). Fishing around for grit in my mouth, it looked like crumbled filling. So I assumed that my filling had cracked and crumbled and come out. Went to the dentist this morning, he took an x-ray and came back with bad news. I have a large cavity under the filling, which gave way. The filling did not fall out, but rather impacted into the space of the cavity. He did not rework the filling, since the cavity is very near the root - cleaning it out would likely result in exposing the root. As some...
Read more