Teaching a child to ride a bike is a special time in their life where they’ll learn valuable skills. Finding the right bike is important for your child’s success, and balance bikes offer several benefits for helping teach this critical skill. Taking a look at how a balance bike influences a child’s bike riding success enables you to make this important decision.
Start Riding Lessons Earlier
Balance bikes are designed to provide children the opportunity to learn to ride a bike in stages. Rocker bikes support the earliest stage of learning how to ride a bike. Similar to a rocking horse, babies and toddlers can sit astride the rocker bike and get used to sitting in this position. Since there aren’t any wheels, the youngest children can safely enjoy practicing riding a bike. For preschoolers, balance bikes lose the rocking mechanism and become powered by their feet touching the ground. This provides support for children who haven’t fully developed their balance.
Strengthen Balance Before Adding Speed
One of the biggest problems with traditional bikes is that they roll quite fast before children are ready. With a balance bike, your child controls the speed. Since they can only go as fast as their little feet can run, your child will have more time to regain control over their bike if it starts to fall to one side. Giving your child a chance to build their balance before they go fast also minimizes safety risks during their first rides.
Prevent Painful Scrapes and Bruises
Many children start out wanting to ride a bike, but they change their minds once they discover how painful it is to fall. Balance bikes reduce the amount of bumps and bruises your child receives during this learning stage. When kids know that they can practice bike riding without getting hurt, they’ll be more likely to want to practice their newfound skills.
Build Confidence With Frequent Success
When you’re teaching a child new skills, it’s important to help them feel successful. Riding a bike requires a certain degree of confidence. With fewer falls, your child will begin to feel confident when they ride their bike. Over time, you’ll notice that this confidence gives your child the courage to lift their feet and coast along to the point that they’ll eventually be balancing on their own.
Use a Step-By-Step Approach to Lessons
Most family members aren’t professional bike riders, and this can make it hard to figure out how to start your child’s lessons. Balance bikes are designed to teach children how to ride over several important stages. At first, your child will use their feet to move their bike. Later, you can add pedals while still keeping your child’s feet close to the ground. Eventually, you’ll move your child to a more traditional bike style that supports their final stages of riding development.
One of the best aspects of using a balance bike is being able to customize your child’s bike-riding journey. Make sure to monitor your child’s developing skills, and remember to adjust their bike as needed. From putting your toddler on a rocker bike to celebrating the first pedal around the block, you can look forward to watching your child hit many milestones over the next several years.
