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Old 05-07-2010, 08:06 AM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, N.C.
36,499 posts, read 53,827,193 times
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One of our 8 year olds just taught herself and took off but the other girl is still deathly afraid of falling and just won't try. Three different patient adults who have had experience with teaching kids how to ride have worked with her. The bike is definitely the right size and she has helmet, knee and elbow pads and knows she is the only kid of the block who won't even try.

Even the 4 year old down the street has taken off his trasining wheels. I don't want to shame her but I'm very frustrated that she just won't try. I know she would love it once she gets the hang of it.

Any suggestions other than just leave her alone?
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Old 05-07-2010, 08:13 AM
 
Location: Denver 'burbs
24,012 posts, read 28,356,739 times
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LOL....

with DD at age 5 or 6 we took the training wheels off (to her horror) and held the bike (she had on helmet etc) and ran along side, the whole deal. All the while she was crying and screaming and so mad at us for this "abuse"....LOL ...but she did get it after a bit...

DS...was barely 4, had a bike that was a bit too big for him yet and he had to stand on the curb to even get on it. One day (when DH was out of town of course) he decided the training wheels were coming off NOW. That was the end of that.

I would say that each child is different. 8 does seem a bit old. Is she maybe embarrassed and doesn't want people to see her while she learns something they already know? Maybe take here someplace out of the neighborhood.....
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Old 05-07-2010, 08:21 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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My dd was 4. We took her to a ball field...I figured if she fell it would be on dirt instead of concrete. She felt much better about that idea. When we got there she asked us to push her in the grass instead of on the ball field. We pushed her one time and off she went...riding right through the grass. And that was it... But riding on grass/dirt made her feel better about riding without her training wheels on...
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Old 05-07-2010, 08:28 AM
 
758 posts, read 1,866,678 times
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Every kid is different, for sure! My oldest learned right before her 5th birthday and my 2nd learned right after his 5th.
They took a while with us running beside them and reminding them to look where they are going instead of at the bike.

Riding the bike is a little tricky for them because their natural instinct is to go slow, because they are unsure, and they have to do the opposite and peddle faster.

My just turned 5 year old blew us away when he had his training wheels taken off just recently. The little bugger needed no help at all. He could start and stop himself and even turn, right off the bat. Which is surprising because he is our little scaredy cat.

Keep working with her, maybe in a different place like maciesmom suggested. A huge parking lot (empty of course), like the school on the weekend, may help her. My second child could not learn on the sidewalk, it was too narrow in his mind. He was worried about keeping the bike on the sidewalk and found it hard to concentrate on peddling, watching where he was going, and navigating the narrow sidewalk.
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Old 05-07-2010, 08:54 AM
 
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Daughter on her 5th birthday, but I should say I considered it to be a bit too early and was floored. It took me a dozen tries of pushing her running behind, and that's all it took. Later that day I took a video of her riding around, so it's immortalized now.

As for son, he's clumsier and feels extremely uncomfortable in a "wobbly" environment, eg he would NOT stand on skates, demands them to be taken off. So skating seems to be not on his bucket list anymore. He's been riding tricycles forever (he's 5 now) but I cannot fathom him moving onto a bicycle, - I have no idea when.
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Old 05-07-2010, 09:08 AM
 
Location: here
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with training wheels, 4. Without training wheels, 5. I've seen it vary among the neighborhood kids, though.
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Old 05-07-2010, 09:17 AM
 
Location: Nova
486 posts, read 1,661,630 times
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My three year old is riding with training wheels and her neighbor friend is 5 1/2 and still riding with training wheels. I think she could learn by now because she is wizzing by on the bike and rides like it's nothing with them on, but she has no desire to take them off from what I can tell, nor do her parents talk about it.
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Old 05-07-2010, 09:34 AM
 
2,467 posts, read 4,845,979 times
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Most of my kids were 5-6 yo. when they learned to ride a bike without training wheels. My youngest was closer to 7yo and it took her awhile to get over the fear, but once she got it, she got it and now we can't keep her off the bike when the weather is good. We had to just keep trying with her, when she felt like trying, and not push her when she was getting fearful or uncomfortable. We took off and put back on her training wheels more times than I can count. There at the end when we were putting her training wheels back on we would get them as high up off the ground as we could, so in reality when she was riding it was like the training wheels weren't even there. Once she realized that she basically was riding without them she was finally ready.
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Old 05-07-2010, 10:00 AM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic
1,820 posts, read 4,479,938 times
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Hi, our daughter just turned 8 and JUST started to ride her bike w/out training wheels!
She was TERRIFIED to try! .... then, my husband,out of frustration, took her training wheels off and said if she was going to ride her bike, she was going to do it w/out them!
One day out of the blue, she takes her bike out of the garage, asked us to hold onto the back and within minutes, she was off on her own!
We couldn't believe it
I think she just needed to be ready herself and feel more confident.
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Old 05-07-2010, 11:51 AM
 
821 posts, read 2,032,282 times
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My daughter was 7 and she wanted a big girls bike. Me and my husband said ok sure when you learn how to ride the kid bike without training wheels we'll buy you a new bike of your choice... We figured ok if she starts today we'll have a little time to get her a bike.. Well we were mistaken. She got on that bike and took off and back up the drive way and said can we go now to get my new bike...LOL
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