Bicycle Lesson

Bought HL a bike for his fourth birthday and took him out on it the other day for a lesson. Unfortunately, it was us, his parents, who did the learning. In hindsight we realize the following: We should have had more patience when he worked on pedaling his tricycle instead of just giving up and pushing him. Along with that, we should have had his tricycle out more often rather than just on walks. I have a suspicion that he is like his parents: afraid of failure. He seems to try things more if no one is watching. So there's lesson one. Lesson two: in our interest of keeping our eldest safe, we have apparently scared him a little too much. I watch him with sadness, knowing that he is too scared to try many new things. Case in point: we were trying his bike on the sidewalk but there was too much for him to have to try to remember up there. So Hubby took him out in the middle of a quiet, safe street, but HL was far too terrified to be out in the street to even try pedaling. While it's an incredibly good thing for him to be afraid of playing in the street, we see this fear materialize in other situations as well. In the past, we didn't realize that he took what we say so literally. Now we know. And the third lesson is that teaching a kid to ride a bike is difficult for all involved. Forget how hard it is for him to figure out- we had a terrible time trying to figure out how to tell him to do it! It's so automatic when you've been doing it your whole life, that you really have to stop and think about it to describe it and put it into steps. But we are working on it. So, the saga continues... HL is not yet a bike rider, but it's our mission to make it so. We'll keep you updated...