Jacob rides a bike!

The training wheels came off and Jacob finally learned how to ride a bike. Several months ago, I tried teaching him. I took the training wheels off and kind of winged it. "Just pedal and balance," I told him. After that failed, I bought a bar-like contraption that attached to the end of the bike so that you could hold him up. That didn't work too well... he's heavy!

He was discouraged and the weather outside was just too hot so months past, actually all of summer past, before we attempted to try again. I randomly heard on the radio that one technique was to take off the pedals so that the child learns how to balance first. Sure, sounds good.

In two days, he learned to ride a bike! Yes, I do mean to toot my own horn. The first day I took him out, I just wanted him to push his bike to get a feel of balancing on two wheels. "Push. Push. Balance. Push. Push."

The second day (yesterday), I put the pedals back on and connected them all together. "Push, balance, feet on pedals and then pedal." Boom. Done. There's still room for improvement, i.e. going faster and making sharp turns, but in due time. Pedaling on two wheels is a big accomplishment in my book and I've never been so proud.