On Tuesday, I had a super cool experience.
We signed up Finn, our 5 year old, for bike riding lessons at REI. The class occurred after work hours.
I know what you’re thinking…you paid for bike riding lessons? Why didn’t you teach him yourself?
Well, my cousin Eddie took his son to this same class and he said they taught him in 2 hours how to ride a bike.
I liked the efficiency of that, so Sarah signed him up.
We took him to REI and there were 7 kids in the class with him. They ranged in age from 5 all the way up to 12 years old.
The instructors started the kids with no pedals to work on balance. They had the kids sit on their seats and walk back and forth while sitting on their bike seats.
They had several drills with the kids using this concept. After an hour of these drills, they put the pedals back on the bikes.
I remember thinking, “I don’t think the kids are ready for this but if he falls then he needs to get back up.”
At first, he was struggling to get up on the pedals. The instructors began to run alongside the kids while they were holding them up. Then, after they got up to a certain speed, the instructors let go.
Some of the kids pedaled a couple of times and then they fell.
But most fell immediately after the instructor let go.
There were only 2 instructors so the kids were standing around waiting for their turn. So I decided to help the instructors out. I began to run alongside Finn while holding him up on the bike.
Once I got up to a certain speed I slowly let go of the bike and Finn pedaled 5 times. Then he tried to turn and he lost control and fell. He immediately jumped up and shouted, “I did it. I did it. Let’s do it again.”
Then I grabbed him again and this time he rode a little further.
We did this for about 30 minutes. He would have been there all night, but the class was ending.
It was very cool to see him so happy and excited. I was very happy that I was there when he took his first strides on the bike.
Floss like a madman!
Emilio “Dad of Future Little 500 Participant” Couret