Balance Bike
By Kim Larocque
Toddlers are a little clumsy and are only beginning to learn how to balance. They can't take care of themselves yet and constantly need adult supervision so they don't get into accidents. Adults can teach them how to be independent and enhance their balancing skills by giving them a balance bike.
Balance bikes are not like regular bikes- they're bikes built without pedals. Teaching a child to ride a bike with training wheels first before progressing to a regular bike is no longer advisable. With a regular bike that has training wheels, the child has to unlearn his reliance on the training wheels for balance and has only learned the concept of steering. With this type of bike, the child will learn the two important principle of coordination and balance at the same time. Pedaling is not a big deal because it is easy to master.
Even though child needs an adult to show him how the balance bike works, most children instinctively sit on the saddle and try to move the bike like a horse. They will try to bounce the bike or try to walk with it slowly.
Balance bikes are a wonderful first step towards learning how to ride a bike. It teaches the child the basics of hand-eye coordination and balance. Once he learns to move the bike with his feet by walking, he soon progresses to running and then gliding. This sounds like a long process, but it actually takes a few hours for a child to progress from walking to gliding.
When a child learns how to balance and glide with ease, you can slowly introduce your child to the idea of pedaling. Since he has mastered coordination and balance with the balance bike, his adjustment to pedaling will be an easy concept to master.
Check out my website www.allaboutkidssite.com for more articles related to kids.
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