He CAN do it!

Isaac received a itty bitty bike with training wheels for his second birthday. It took him until nearly his third birthday to figure out how to pedal the thing. That meant a lot of pushing him around on my part and I was glad to be done with it. This spring and summer we enjoyed lots of long walks as I pushed Abby in the stroller and Isaac pedaled his bike alongside.

Only the poor little guy desperately wanted to be like his big cousin (a year older) who could ride without training wheels. Every time we saw anyone riding a bike, Isaac would ask, "Why do they have a bike without training wheels." And I would say, "Well, they're just a little bigger than you are, Bug." But I could see that he really REALLY wanted to be just like those bigger folks.

Though I didn't want to face another year of pushing his bike around, we took Isaac's training wheels and pedals off a month ago. The idea was that he would learn to balance by propelling himself forward with his feet and then gliding. It sort of worked - his seat didn't go quite low enough for him to really put his feet down and build up speed. So a few days ago I put the pedals back on and decided on a whim to let him try it before I added training wheels.

He can do it! All it took was ten minutes of running alongside him and he was off! We spent much of the weekend at a vacant parking lot, watching him build speed and confidence. He's jumping curbs and pulling his feet off the pedals and speeding around and he is thrilled! I really hadn't thought he was old enough (three and a half) or coordinated enough but I'm so glad I let him try.

I need to remember this lesson. My tendency is to hold him back because I don't want him to fail. But what a reward he earned for his determination!

This morning he asked for a second session of Alpha-Phonics. He's too young to learn to read, isn't he?