A friend suggested we start Little Miss with a balance bike. I was a bit dubious at first but after looking into it I realised what a fabulous idea this is.
Instead of giving a child a bike with stabilisers so they learn to pedal then removing the stabilisers so they learn to balance, get the hard bit out of the way first, teach them to balance then add the pedals later.
With practice children as young as 2 years can ride competently.
What a fab way to enable Little Miss to keep up on a long walk giving her little legs a break too, not to mention reducing the chances of her wanting to be carried along with her rapidly growing baby brother.
Little Miss has recently been going through a helmet refusal phase.
And I didn't fancy trying to teach her to ride whilst holding her baby brother and a big dog.
So when I saw an advert for Balanceability I signed her up.
The course isn't too expensive, £30 for 6 lessons at a local leisure centre.
I wish I could say that Little Miss has taken to it "like a duck to water" but in reality I think she's a little too young at 2 and a half. She certainly enjoys the sessions and as you can see we've got passed the helmet refusing phase, she's also got properly seated on the bike but steering, braking and gliding are beyond her halfway through the course.
She's definitely off to a great start and as with everything else where Little Miss is concerned, she will master this skill when she decides she wants to do it.
Here's the Balanceability website: