Learning to Ride a Bicycle

We always hear that something is like learning to ride a bicycle, you never forget.

My wife Jen and I have spent many times trying to teach our daughter Jan to ride her
bicycle without training wheels. We mostly tried walking beside her holding the handle bars
so she could balance. This method was not very successful.
 
Jan asked recently, " Can you put my training wheels back on? "

I replied, "No. "

Jen searched on the internet and learned we should hold Jan's shoulders from
behind so she can learn to balance herself. We decided to try this since our method
was not working. We did not have time to try this before leaving for Virginia on
our summer vacation. Jen told Jan's best friends mother this was a method she
read about as Amy was also learning how to ride her bicycle.

When we returned from vacation Amy was riding her bicycle already.
This news inspired Jan in wanting to learn how to ride herself. We spent an
hour and a half on Sunday, walking back & forth in our driveway. I let go of
her shoulders several times and she was able to balance the length of our driveway.
She was having a problem with steering then; would steer into the grass on the side.
Jen decided to take Jan to the end of our cul-de-sac early one morning and then she
could steer in a circle better. Jan reported to me that night, she was able to ride in a
circle on the cul-de-sac. I took her to the cul-de-sac early the next morning. She road
in circles and asked me to count. She made several laps four different times, I told her it
all added up to 30 laps and she told me it doesn't count since she stopped in between.
Ariel road back to our house and then road in circles around our driveway.

She was very proud of herself that she learned how to ride a bike. Jan wanted us to take
her bicycle with her when she went to visit Amy. I put her bike in the trunk of Jen's car.
She thought she could out ride Amy.

When I arrived home that night Jan said, " Amy can ride a bike better than me. She knows how to ride downhill."

It turns out Amy can ride downhill better and Jan was a little scared as she is still learning to apply her brakes but Jan road circles around Amy. Amy did ten laps around the cul-de-sac and Jan road thirty laps.

It surprised me how fast both girls learned to ride a bike once their parents knew the proper way to teach them how to ride a bike.