Teach Your Child to Ride a Bike in One Hour - No Training Wheels

Here's how to teach a child to ride a bike in about one hour. Basic idea: find a gentle, grassy slope where the kid can learn how to balance the bike while going down the slope without pedaling. Learning pedaling and balancing at the same time is too much for some kids. The grass ensures a soft landing for the inevitable falls.  This works for kids at age 5 through 8, in my experience, but probably older or younger as well.

1. Make sure the bike is small enough so the kid can almost stand herself up while sitting on the bike.

2.  Get rid of training wheels -- but do make sure the child wears a properly fitted bicycle helmet.

3. Find a short, gentle, grassy slope with a large flat grassy area at the bottom with nothing nearby to crash into.

4. Let the kid coast down the hill, perhaps starting halfway up at first.  Tell her not to worry about pedaling but just get used to the idea of balancing.  Expect a few wipe outs.  Or a lot of wipe outs. That's okay.

5. Repeat step 4 for about 20 or 30 minutes using plenty of encouragements and making sure any falls are soft and harmless.

6.  Once balance and stability in coasting appears to be working, start farther up the hill.

7.  Repeat until the kid is comfortable coasting down the hill and balancing the bike.

8.  When step 7 is mastered, tell the child to start pedaling toward the bottom of the hill.

9.  In my experience (4 kids' worth), once step 8 works, the child pedals away and just keeps going.

Again, this method has never failed me and has never taken more than about one hour.  I assume it would work for younger or older people as well as long as the size of the bike is appropriate.

They make tiny, low-to-the-ground, two-wheel "bikes" for toddlers with no pedals so kids can learn the balancing part of bike riding at an early age, if you want to encourage that.

Good luck.

Boy Scouts Should End its Discrimination against Gays and Lesbians

Remarkably, the Boy Scouts of America is still debating whether or not to continue its ban against gays and lesbian scouts and scout leaders.  They are currently surveying the scout community. This is an issue that should not require a poll to figure out what's right.

Here's what I shared with BSA's national office and with the National Capitol Area Council:

I am a scout leader in Patriot District and a Wood Badge candidate. These are my comments about BSA's current discrimination against gays and lesbians.

BSA must enter the 21st Century and embrace diversity and accept gays and lesbians, as our armed services and all other significant institutions have.

BSA has a very public mission. The fact that it is a "private organization" is meaningless in the context of its key, influential role in America. Bringing diversity to your unit is required for all Wood Badge candidates. Why is that message getting buried by BSA's policies?

Consider this irony: Through its current discrimination, BSA is telling gay or lesbian leaders in our armed services that they do not have the moral fitness to serve as an assistant den leader in their own son's Cub Scout pack. Does that make sense?

BSA's discrimination against gays violates my Christian faith and my sense of honor, morality, and history as an American.

Clinging to the current policy will hurt Boy Scouts future as an enduring, significant institution in the U.S.

My father was a Boy Scout, I was a Boy Scout, my son is a Boy Scout. On behalf of all of us, please end the discrimination, which is no different than barring Jewish or African Americans from scouting.

Policy Haiku for February 20, 2013

Sequestration threat
Triggers a bipartisan
Kumbaya blamestorming moment