A Big Day

Yesterday was a big day in a small way.

Jaycob learned to tie his shoes.  I know, he’s going into the third grade and he’s just now learning?  That’s not because he’s dumb, it’s because I’m lazy and I’m not a good teacher.  But now it’s done and with minimal clashing of wills.  Jordan learned to tie her shoes last week.  She’s far more compliant.

Yesterday was also a big day for Doobie Poo.  He learned to ride a bike without training wheels.  I’ve been working with him off and on all summer but I would get lazy and then he’d go back to his training wheels and forget all the things he’d learned.  So yesterday I decided was the official big day, THE FINAL DAY of no training wheel training.

We rode our bikes (Josh with training wheels) to the local school playground and while the older kids played, Doobie and I spent a good hour in the grass field, starting on a small hill and riding and crashing in the grass.

 Because his little bike has training wheels, I simplified the process by teaching him on his sister’s pink Barbie bike.  Every time we started over on the hill, he made it farther.  Pretty soon he was pedaling halfway across the field and then putting his foot down to stop instead of tipping over in a heap.

 Back at home, we kept practicing on our street where it’s easier to pedal but more painful to crash.  I felt this was a huge incentive to NOT CRASH.  It seemed to work fairly well.

 

  

 It wasn’t long before straight line and stop became turning large corners and coming back to me.

 

There is no turning back now.  I just took the training wheels off HIS bike!