He can ride!

On Saturday Chip asked me to help him ride his bike, the one I took the traning wheels off of last summer when he was almost 4.  I thought he was ready since he was such an ace on his scooter.  It didn’t transfer, though – he was not ready.

So, on Saturday I was pretty dismissive when he started pestering me to help him ride his bike.  I was busy and just didn’t have time to spend an hour running alongside his bike while he freaked out, which has always been my experience with teaching a kid to ride (I know hindsight is 20/20, but I should have known right there that my assumptions were wrong, based on his sisters, not him.  This kid isn’t afraid of physically falling.)  But I gave in, he climbed on and I gave him a push and started running while I kept my hand on his back.  I lifted my hand off his back and noticed he didn’t immediately freak out and fall.  In my experience teaching two other kids, that is very promising. So, the second time I gave him a push, I let go and ran along side him for a couple feet before stopping and watching with my jaw hanging open.  That was it.  He was riding his bike for the rest of the weekend.

He needs a push to start and he heads off into the grass to do a combination jump off/fall for stopping purposes.  But he can ride for as long as he wants.  So cool.