On Sunday, we took the kids to a field across the street and Geoff thought he'd start teaching Seth how to ride on two wheels. Well, there wasn't much to teach, to be honest. Geoff held the back of his bike for a few seconds, and Seth just started riding his bike. He fell a lot, and Geoff held the back of his bike a bunch of times just to get him going from a stand still. But basically Seth nailed the technique from the get-go. He is an amazingly physical and able child.
On Monday, the training wheels were still off and the boys wanted to ride their bikes on the driveway. With absolute grit and determination, and not yet having learned how to start off on his own, Seth tried to do it all by himself. Over and over, he tried to push himself off. Over and over he fell onto the brick and concrete driveway. But he experimented with different starting techniques, and by george, the kid got it. By Tuesday, he was riding as if he'd done it all of his life: he was driving at top speed; turning tight loops; slamming to a stop when his speed brought him too close to Lizzie or Matthew; riding with one hand (while blowing me kisses with the other!); and careening over the small ramp that I constructed for them out of a 4x8 sheet of plywood and a few logs. It's great to see both boys sweating buckets under their helmets as they take some of their endless energy out on their bikes.
Matthew loves watching BMX and trick riding on Apple tv and he's started getting his non-tv-watching brother into it, too. I'm convinced that these guys are going to be trick riders or bike racers or something like that by the time they hit their teens. They've started talking about putting a pole on the driveway (heaven forbid) so that they can pretend they're riding down a set of stairs.
I think I need to shut down Apple tv before they get any other fancy ideas.
Hi Ruth,
ReplyDeleteStill reading your posts faithfully... at first to keep up on your lives and hold you in the light... more recently for parenting perspective and advice! When I read your post where you were giving yourself a kick in the pants for withholding a privilege from Seth, I realized once again just what a conscientious parent you are... I would have done something similar and not thought a moment about it... Most likely I'd have done something quite a lot less thought out and probably regrettable. Anyways, I wonder if you can point me in the direction to find out more about those attachment parenting courses you've taken. I could use one and I know Dave would be interested too. Who do we call?
Hope to see you all soon at a homeschooling event or would love to do a playdate.
Tammy