Where to Ride?

It's hard to believe that Eric just recently learned to ride his bike without training wheels! His new Star Wars bike is well broken in, and I can't remember the last time he fell off.

Naturally, our little six year old wants to ride as much as possible now that he's acquired this skill,  but where? When Ben and Janae were little, we used to ride down the road to our library, which had a huge paved area that was never busy, and they would practice there. We also had a big playing field and park across the street with a paved trail around it. When Alaina was little, there was a very flat ride to our local elementary school and lots of paved space around the school to get used to riding on two wheels.

I thought our current neighborhood would be good for riding, too--it's pretty flat, and we have several cul-de-sacs on our route when we walk around the block. Eric is fast, though, and he likes to ride ahead. One afternoon, I was walking and Eric was riding when a woman pulled up beside me in a car. She asked if Eric was my son, and I proudly said, "Yes!" Then she reprimanded me for letting him ride around her cul-de-sac, saying she had almost hit him when backing out of her driveway. She said he was going so fast, and she had almost missed seeing him. I felt relieved that Eric's life had been spared but started to rethink his daily bike ride. I talked to Eric about looking carefully at every driveway before riding past, but I knew how distracted he could be when he's pretending to be riding a dragon instead of a bike or when he's talking away about something he wants to play.

Sometimes we like to go for walks at a nature area that has a long, winding trail around a pond with tall grasses. I thought this would be a great place for Eric to ride his bike because it's usually not too busy and we would be able to see him from far away. But as soon as we got there, I realized I had underestimated my son. Even though the path was gravel--which slowed him down for a minute--he quickly got out of view, hidden by the tall grass and bends in the trail.

I didn't know if he was safe--if he had fallen, or if he had collided with someone else, or if he had been kidnapped.

I recognized my mistake, though: we needed at least one other person to be on a bike. This way, someone could keep up with Eric.

The next day, I suggested that we go for a walk by the river. There was a big open trail where we had walked before, and I'd be able to see Eric from miles away. I talked Alaina and Janae into taking their bikes, too, and Ben came along to walk with me.

I thought loading the three bikes into our van would be the hardest part of the expedition, but it turns out I was wrong again. When we got to the trail, Janae and Alaina started riding with Eric ...

but then they took off ahead of him. So, Alaina and Janae were about as far away as I could see, and Eric was beyond the point where he could hear me calling. Things continued this way for a while. Janae and Alaina decided to turn around and head for the car, so we saw them in passing. Eric turned around, too, and quickly got ahead of us. I saw him stop and talk with strangers, then carry on towards the car. But Janae and Alaina--who had stopped at the car, just below the trail--weren't watching for him, and Eric continued past, making good progress on the path that stretched out as far as the eye could see in both directions.

At this point, Ben broke into a sprint, eventually catching up with Eric and turning him around.  I realized my mistake: I hadn't talked to Janae and Alaina beforehand about sticking close to their little brother. (Or about going down to the car where I couldn't see them--but that is another story.)

A few days later, I took the kids out for a bike ride again. Eric had requested a paved trail, and I thought of a park that wasn't too busy that might work. I talked to Janae ahead of time about staying near Eric, letting him ride just ahead of her so she could keep her eyes on him.

And it worked! Most of the time Alaina and I could see them, but even when we couldn't, I knew they were together.

Our experiment was so successful that we tried it again a few days later, but this time the chain came off of Janae's bike while we were driving to the park, and Eric was on his own again.

But we have learned a lot, and he knew not to go too far ahead. 

So, it looks like we're all set for the rest of the summer ... and we'll be looking for more trails--preferably paved ones without too many bends so I can keep an eye on these guys!