Sara Rides a Bicycle!!

I was pretty sure that Sara was ready for riding a bicycle without training wheels at the end of the summer last year, but we just didn't have the weather to work with her. Since the weather has been so warm these past weeks, we've spent some serious time outdoors on our bikes. When Daddy came home from work early today, we got him to take off Sara's training wheels. Mommy ran with her 3 times and then she was off on her own riding a two-wheeler! Check her out!!

Teaching her to ride was so quick and easy! She appears to be a natural! I mean, I learned to ride at 12 yrs old with serious patience and help from all my big brothers and here she is at 4 years old having conquered it with very little help and in one hour without training wheels. Go Sara!! We are so proud of you!

**Other than just being "Sara" and incredibly talented with gross motor skills, we did learn a lot from teaching kid #1 to ride a bike to kid #2. Having the proper equipment made all the difference. We learned that it was key to have a very small bike (12") to start. It's a lot less scary and a lot easier to handle when both your feet can touch the ground. She learned to pedal on this tiny bicycle with training wheels. (We tried to teach Laura on a 16" - our first mistake.) We also have a balance bike (or running bike) that Sara was flying around on and learned all the basics of balance, recovery, etc. I cannot sing the praises of this training device enough! (Eliza is currently working on the same skills with an even smaller balance bike and loving it.) Hopefully, teaching #3 with all our increased knowledge and experience will be equally simple and we'll all be riding together as a family soon!