31 Days of Play! The Balance Bike

Resting on the beach.

I mentioned yesterday that we spend a lot of time outdoors with Beansprout's balance bike.  It's amazing!  The idea is that kids start out learning how to balance and how to control the steering of a bike.  This is the most difficult part of learning to ride a bike, and once they've mastered it without pedals, the transition is far easier than moving from training wheel assistance to just two wheels.  Beansprout loves it!  He often requests going out for a bike ride and while riding has been known to say, "vroom, vroom".  I enjoy seeing people's faces when they see little Beansprout "vrooming vrooming" on his little bike.  I actually had one woman stop us dead in our tracks to say, "Is he really riding a bike!?!  Isn't he only about two?"  Indeed, he's only two+ and he is moving so fast that Matt and I have to race him, we actually RUN, to intersections so he doesn't surprise any drivers!  I feel he's in the making of a BMX rider the way he creates obstacle courses for himself: glide on the pavement, over the gravel, around the parking blocks, and back again.  It's play AND learning at it's best!

Strider with lights at night!

Don't get me wrong, our guy didn't jump on the bike and start racing around!  This is a boy who didn't walk until 15 months, so our hopes of having him on the bike at 18 months were probably reaching a little high!  When he was ready, though, we had him ride on it in the house for months.  We let him get used to mostly walking around with it, and once we took him outside we could almost see his synapses connecting faster and faster right in front of our eyes - a bit clumsy one day and full speed ahead the next!  Today he looks like the kids in the promo videos, as he coasts along with his feet up!

Writing about play has been such a treat this month!  Check out my other 31 Days of Play and an explanation of the challenge here.

edited 12/25/11