Biking!

On Friday, I took the kids to the park in town with a paved walking path and they all were able to bike.  (Cora got a bike passed down last month to her from her older cousin, Emma.)  We've been two other times last month, but this was the first time that Cora got the hang of pushing the pedals forward constantly.  Yesterday, we went again and she biked all the way around the park... which is about 3/4 of a mile!

We had tried to help Aiden and Seth learn to ride without training wheels the last time we went to the park, but running behind them and holding on to the seat didn't work so well.  I watched a helpful video on youtube that suggested putting their seats down as far as possible and taking their pedals off, so they could push themselves along with their feet until they got their balance.  I didn't take their pedals off, but I did take their training wheels off and lower their seats, and even left their training wheels at home.  There were a few spills, but Aiden was quite determined to learn.  Within about 20 minutes, he was riding short stretches on his own!  I was amazed that he could learn so quickly with very little instruction from me!  This video is from yesterday, Aiden's second day of being able to ride a two-wheeler.  He even rode around the entire park about 4 times!  

Seth had watched Aiden learn on Friday, and seemed discouraged that he couldn't get the hang of it, but he didn't like that he couldn't get his balance as easily as Aiden could.  Dan worked with him a lot yesterday and helped him break down the different elements of riding - the balance, the pedaling and the steering.  He wanted to quit a few times, but was really excited when he finally got the hang of it.  I was so proud of him for not giving up!