Losing the Training Wheels, Emily learns to ride her bike!

So, we took Emily to the soccer fields today to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels. The nice thing abou the soccer fields is that they're grassy, but the grass is really short, and the ground is pretty hard. Not quite as painful as falling on cement, but easy enough to pedal on.

She's had her little 16" bike for quite a while now. She's not quite big enough for a 20" bike, and we want to get her good at two wheeling before we buy her a nice new 20" bike anyway, so now's the time.

Last weekend, we went for a bike ride on the American Tobacco Trail (a converted rail line, not paved, but the trail consists of screened gravel, so it's a pretty nice surface), and we rode for 3-1/2 miles. Not bad for Emily with her training wheels on, but it's tough! The training wheels really add a lot of drag.

She was pretty excited about going to the park today for practice.

It went really well too. We were there for maybe 40 minutes total, but by the end, I only had to give her a little shove to get her going, and she was riding all the way across the soccer field, and turning, and hitting the brakes to stop. She did awesome!

She did fall a few times. Nothing like I remember doing. I think I was 5 when I got my first bike. Training wheels aren't very useful when you grow up in the country, on a gravel road, with a gravel driveway, and hills in th driveway. I'm sure I started on training wheels but I don't remember them.

I do remember falling off the bike numerous times, getting scrapes on my knees and stuff. We had Emily put on jeans, and she wore knee pads and elbow pads and her helmet.