Kai is REALLY riding a "Two-Wheel" Bicycle all by himself now! The idea came about last Thursday. Tina saw an entry on another family's blog about a young girl learning to ride a bike without training wheels and showed it to Kai. Kai decided that he wanted to learn to do this now. Tina took the training wheels off for him and he messed about with the bike on the back deck for a bit. Tina says she has never seen a child learn to ride a bike the way Kai did. He did not want assistance with the process, which is probably for the best as he is SO wiggly. He started by trying to kick off and start peddling. Tina worked with him a bit to help him learn to bring the pedal up around with your toe to get it in starting position and he figured that out quickly. He made a couple runs down the yard, and the length of the deck. It's a narrow deck with lots of obstacles, so apart from being level and smooth, it's a tough place to learn to ride a bike. By the time Tina suggested going out front to the cul-de-sac, Kai was worn out and done for the day.

The weather this weekend was pretty brutal. We actually had snow! This morning there was lots of it on the ground, trees and roofs in the neighborhood. It melted quickly, but still, SNOW on April 20th! Anyway, as we were driving to Chinese School this afternoon, Kai said he wanted to take the training wheels back off his bike again when we got home. So we did! He started on the back deck again, but there just isn't enough room to really get going there so we headed out to the cul-de-sac. He kicked about a bit on it and then just rode away! The video above is actual footage of his first real successful bike ride!

I will now tell you the secret of how to teach a child to ride a bike. You can't teach a child to ride a bike, you can only help them to learn it on their own. One of the best tools I've found for this is a bike that is a little too small for the child. You want a bike that the child can clear the seat when standing over it. This size bike let's the child put their feet down and still have the bike in balance position. They feel much more confident because there is much less risk of falling over. Ben taught me this 14 years ago when he learned to ride a tiny little bike Tina bought for $5 at a garage sale. That little bike became legendary as we saw nearly half a dozen different children learn on this little beater garage sale item. I see people again and again, buy children this age a bike to grow into, but I really believe if you want them to learn to ride without training wheels you want to start on a bike that's a little too small.

Kai is VERY pleased with this new accomplishment, and Tina and I are just amazed that we're seeing him do this already. He is truly an amazing little kid!