The foolproof way to teach your child to ride a bike

Learning to ride a bike without the small wheels is a milestone for children. For those who have been able to exercise often on a balance bike, the next step is easier. But for the little ones they have a little problem manage your balance and for those who can freak out about the great adventure of the big bike, we have an almost magical technique to offer you, tested and approved.

Learn to ride a bicycle with the slingshot technique

To give you some background on my personal case, my 6 year old daughter has been trying to ride a bike without small wheels for over a year. Until last weekend she couldn’t take it, she was scared of falling, she couldn’t find her balance and we spent the weekends breaking our backs trying to hold him down, her, the saddle, the handlebars, in short, everything we could, so much so that it ended in bitter failure. My daughter was losing self-confidence, she was convinced that she would never make it, and she had abandoned the bike in the cellar, preferring her scooter, which was more manageable.

Until the day her best friend’s father from school told me about it the “scarf technique”. She explained that she had used a large scarf for her daughter that she had passed under her arms, holding the ends by her upper back. Explained like this, it’s hard to visualize, but here’s a little TikTok video that shows everything I’m talking about:

Neither one nor two, the following days, I hung a long scarf under my daughter’s arms, spun the small wheels and jumped, Simone car!

My daughter, certainly not the most daring, but who never lets go, started off softly at the beginning. The wrap was tight as I was really helping her find her balance. Then gradually the scarf came loose and I saw that it no longer needed me to “pull” it up to roll. I ran alongside, I spat my lungs a little, it’s true, but she was driving aloneright, without me physically supporting her.

Several round trips later, the scarf has been completely removed, and here she is now riding like a biker on the road, as if he always knew how to do it.

I let you imagine his pride (and mine) when he realized that by now he could ride a bicycle like the grown-ups, without aids. She knows she’s definitely going to fall, because these things happen, but now she is much more confidentand dash through the woods like a pro.

And you, do you know this technique?