Over the past year or so, London has really struggled with learning to ride a bike. Maybe he just wasn't ready and maybe he had a few sensory challenges that made it a little more difficult -- or just a little more scary. Whatever it was, he just didn't want to try to learn to ride his bike, even when his best buddy was zipping around on two wheels.
When London's OT suggested that he go to a special bike camp, I didn't buy into it right away. I thought that he'd figure out this whole bike riding thing on his own eventually. At the same time, I've seen both kids learn faster with other adults -- swim lessons is a good example. Even though I taught swim lessons for years, the kids listen better to another adult and have become little fish this summer. So, we did it. And London loved it.
One thing that I think helped was that London was pretty high functioning compared to other kids in his class. That probably gave him an extra boost of confidence. And in just 2 days, he learned to ride a bike.
On Sunday, my proud biker and I took our first long bike ride on the trail by our house -- with Violet in tow in the Burley. I was a silly, weepy, happy mom following him along the trail. He was grinning from ear to ear, slamming on the breaks now and then to watch the "smoke" and my favorite -- waving to other bikers on the trail. He also gave me his classic thumbs up quite a few times during our ride.
We went about 5 miles or so and stopped for ice cream on the way home as a special treat. I was especially proud of him and in the end I am very glad that he went to bike camp.