9 Simple Tips For Teaching Your Child To Ride A Bike

7. Stopping And Braking

If you’ve reached this point, your child is probably doing a pretty good job of riding their bike, congratulations! But there’s one more very important thing that’s left to teach: stopping. Learning to brake without losing balance or falling is a key skill in learning to ride.

You can teach this by having your child gently press on the brake until they have learned to use it without losing balance. At first, you might find they’re over-eager with the braking, which can lead to falls or close calls, but they have to learn not to rely on their feet to stop them. A good way to practice braking is with a game of ‘Red Light & Green Light’ where to call “green light” for them to go, and “red light” for them to stop, encouraging faster stops as they progress.

It may take some time to get the hang of it, but once they do, you can return the seat back to its appropriate height, and get to properly riding!

8. Follow Me!

Once your child has a little more confidence on the bike, it’s time to start giving them some real world experience. Seeing as most of their early years will be spent following you on your bike, a game of ‘Follow The Leader’ is a great way to teach these skills. Make sure you set a good example by wearing your helmet, and take a nice slow ride around a park, or even where you have been practicing.

During this time, it pays to focus on balance, and make nice big turns to test out their steering skills. Also make sure to test their awareness and braking. You can set out cones to practice this, or simply call out “Red Light” when you want them to practice braking.

9. Testing Them Out

Now that your child has covered all the basics of bike riding, it’s time to take them out for a ride with you and your family! This is a great positive way to reinforce bike riding as a fun and energetic activity that everyone can enjoy. Try and offer an end goal for your ride that your child will really like, such as visiting their favourite playground or riding to a sweet shop. That way, they’ll be motivated to ride, and rewarded when they finish.