Prime surprised me

Prime really surprised me today. Daddy took off his training wheel last night and this morning, I took him to the park to try to learn to ride his bike w/o training wheel. I was thinking this will take like 5 days before he get the hang of it.

It was very hard at first, I had to hold on to the back of his jacket very tight. I can tell he was leaning on me heavily and it was very tough with lots of stop and go. After a round of that, I was getting tired of holding on to his jacket so instead I put my hand high on his back just below his neckline. That was much better....it was a lot easier for me that's for sure. For him, there was lots of major swerving, but I think that is because he was learning how to find his center.

After a little bike riding, Prime is ready to stop and go play. I used a line I just read this morning in "For the Children's Sake" by Susan S. Macaulay which says in the section about the habit of self-control, " I can see you don't feel like continuing xxx. But it is your duty to try as hard as you can. When you finsh xxx (this lap), then you can go play". She also talked about the question is not "What do I want?", but "What do I think is right in this instance?" That really struck a cord with me.

So Prime decides to finish and I thought since we're close to the end of the loop, I'll see if he can ride by himself for maybe 5 sec. So I let go (thinking he is just going to crash), and the first time, he rode off for about 6 secs before I caught up with him to stop him. He rode so fast that I was so stunned that I didn't want him to crash really hard on the path. After that, I realized maybe he can balance by himself after all. So we tried again and this time he rode by himself for a good minute before crashing onto grass as he had trouble turning and breaking. We talked a little about braking and slowing down when there is down slope and we practiced that a little bit as well. But I think as long as I help him start off (save that to work on another day) and more practice, he can ride a real bike by himself! YEAH!

I couldn't believe the transition was so fast. What kids are able to do just amazes me. It wasn't that long ago he didn't even know how to ride a bike because he had trouble coordinating his feet. He never had a little bike. This bike is it. But today, just amazing!

Look at him go!

Rewarded with a treat.