This week I'm a really excited and proud mummy. My son has learned to ride a bike!! A couple of months ago he was given a bike that he absolutely loved. He has been taking the bike to the park, without trying to ride it. Just walking with it to the park and back. Despite my best efforts, explaining how to ride a bike verbally to a 5-year-old boy didn't work for either of us.
Something I was not keen on was the use of stabilisers. I really think they are useless, as they make you learn to ride a bike twice: firstly with, then without. I am obviously not an expert, but I believe having stabilisers prevents the child from learning intuitively where their balance point is. But after a couple of months, I started to wonder whether I was completely wrong and the stabilisers were the key.