Let's go ride a bike

Say cheese! (Kiersa really does say "cheese" each time I point a camera at her.)

I've mentioned before how it took me over a year to teach Talea to skip (granted we weren't working on it every day), and it only took me a couple minutes to teach Hyatt. They both can skip now as though they've known since birth.

I've been trying to teach Talea to swim for years. She's always hated the water (swimming, getting her hair washed, etc). She's so fearful of water on her face! Hyatt, though, was born part fish, I think, because he's always enjoyed being in the water and never has fear. They both learned to swim, for the most part, this year, though their technique needs improvement, and I wouldn't trust them alone in a pool. They can't tread water yet. Talea is actually getting quite good because she'll swim underwater and actually get somewhere. Hyatt, when you push him down, will swim to a toy (underwater ring) and grab it before popping up. He's not as far along as Talea, though he needs no coaxing to do it, and Talea sometimes needs a courage boost.

I started trying to teach Talea to ride a bike a year ago. She had a bike with training wheels, and Hyatt had a trike. She was absolutely far too terrified to learn. She was completely dependent on her training wheels (I'm very opposed to training wheels by the way. If it was totally up to me, my kids would never have them.) After trying with no success to get her to learn last year, and allowing Hyrum to reinstall the training wheels, I only tried a couple more times on the sidewalk by our house.

We bought Talea a bigger bike that didn't come with training wheels, so I was excited for her to HAVE to learn. Yesterday, I determined she was far too old to not know how to ride a bike anymore. She turned 5 in May, and I taught my little brothers how to ride a bike before they were 3. We took her to the track again, and no surprise...she was scared.

Hyrum took round one on teaching her.



She spent her time chanting, "I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared...".

It was time for tough love. I put down the camera (thus no more pictures before dark), I took her on the football field and ran along behind, pushing her, then I shoved her off and let go, willing to let her crash every time until she was sick of crashing and decided to balance. To my, and her, astonishment, when I let go, she rode!!!! For quite a distance!

Grass=courage, but it slows the bike down and she ends up taking her feet off the pedals and crashing.

Now, Hyatt has been riding better than Talea with the training wheels (the training wheels rarely touch the ground), so I decided to put Hyatt on Talea's bike (though it's a bit big for him), to see if he could ride. (Hyatt turned 3 in April.) He ran out to the field wanting to give it a try, so I put him on Talea's bike, thinking he'd crash right away since he's never attempted riding without training wheels before, and when I shoved him off and let go, he kept going with perfect balance and expert control of the handle bars. He only finally crashed when the grass slowed him down too much. I'm sure that if I'd tried teaching Hyatt last year, he would have been riding before 3, like my little brothers.

So by the time we left, well after it was dark, Hyatt was riding like a pro on his little bike around the track and Talea was still wobbling around crashing on the track because she lacks the courage to stay up when she's off the grass. (We didn't have tools to take Hyatt's training wheels off, so we just bent them back so they weren't able to touch anymore.)

We're going tomorrow to try again! I'll get some video next time. I'll work on teaching Hyatt to start and stop by himself, and work on getting Talea to ride on the track versus the grass.

I think it's funny that Talea (who is a LOUD, outgoing leader), was never scared of being thrown around by Hyrum like a little acrobat, she's fearless of climbing really high in trees, she's not scared of any animals or bugs or getting pinched by earwigs or bit by snakes, and she's a genius with technology, like Hyrum's iPhone and the computer, yet she's scared of swimming and riding a bike, and she's too uncoordinated to catch on to simple things like skipping (or at least she was for years). I find it baffling. I would think that purposely making a wild snake bite me would be more terrifying than the possibility of getting a skinned knee. Also, she learned how to make a cork-popping noise with her finger in her mouth after only a few tries. How is it that she couldn't skip??

And even stranger...Hyatt (who is a VERY quiet, shy, follower), is terrified of most animals, bugs, loud noises, baby rollercoasters and most fair rides, and being flung around by Hyrum, yet is fearless when it comes to trying to swim and ride a bike, and he has the coordination to skip after only a few attempts at it. And he's only 3! Maybe he'll learn to read soon too, since Talea has been forever veering around that skill at every chance she gets.

Tilly and Hyatt are pretty much opposites in every way, yet they get along perfectly and are absolute best friends.