I have an 8 year old boy who learned to ride his bike the same way I did. We first bought him a tricycle moved up to a bike with training wheels, then when he was in kindergarten we took off the training wheels and let him go for it. It only took one day before he was starting to feel like an old pro, we were very proud as was he.
Now we have a daughter who is 2. She rides around on the same tricycle, but never uses the pedals she just walks with her feet. The pedals only seem to get in the way. Then a friend brought over this itty bitty bike that only stands about 2 feet tall and has little training wheels. I thought she would love this bike, but she uses it the same way she rides the tricycle with her feet walking instead of pedaling. Those pedals just get in her way and cause her more trouble then anything. What she needed was a no pedal bike.
One day we were playing in the front yard last summer and I saw a neighbor on one of those balance bikes. I had never seen one before! I was so impressed we went over and talked to the family who was out for a bike ride. She was keeping right up with the family on her no pedal bike. She would run for awhile and then hold her feet in the air and balance the bike on her own. Why hadn’t anyone thought of this before, it was perfect. I never liked the idea of training wheels because it seemed like they became more like a crutch and you didn’t want to take them off. But this, this idea was pure genius.
So here we are the following summer and my neighbors rode by on their bikes for a spring ride. But this year the girl who is now 4 is riding a regular bike with no training wheels. This spring I have already seen 3 families in our neighborhood who have this bike! This is definitely the way to learn how to ride a bike! A balance bike!