9 Simple Tips For Teaching Your Child To Ride A Bike

4. Scooting And Coasting

Now that you have your altered bike, it’s time to learn about bike balance. The best way to do this is to have your child scoot along the ground on the bike, using their feet to move the bike forward. Have them go around the learning space scooting over and over. This helps to give your child a feel for how the bike balances.

Once they have the scooting down, it’s time to introduce coasting to the mix. Essentially, this is just scooting, but once you pick up a little bit of speed, you left your feet off the ground. Show your child that they can outstretch their legs to use them as counterbalance, then encourage them to coast for as long as possible.

Then, when they’re comfortable scooting and coasting, it’s time to teach them to turn and steer. The best way to do this is by starting with really large turns in an open space, preferably by using a game. If you have traffic cones or something similar, create a pattern and have your child steer between them. Alternatively, you could put a chalk cross on the ground and challenge your child to run over it. These two tasks encourage children to look ahead as they ride, and direct the bike towards specific areas.

5. Pedal Riding

Now that your child is comfortable with scooting and can coast their bike along and turn it, it’s time to put those pedals back. For the moment, don’t raise the seat, as having it lower for now makes it easier for your child to stop themselves from falling.

To get your child to start peddling, having them stand over the bike with one of their feet on the ground and the other on a raised pedal. Then encourage them to press down on the raised pedal, which will result in a movement similar to the scooting action. You can steady your child by putting your hand on their seat or shoulder, but it’s important they learn the feeling of balance, and keeping the bike balanced.

6. Bringing It Together

As they start to get more of a handle on peddling the bike, you can really start to bring together everything that they’ve learned. Have them practice turning, figure-of-eights and similar manoeuvres, and start some more games using markers or cones. As they master simple turning, get more complex with their steering through turns, to further grow that confidence.