Just Like Riding a Bike

When Spencer learned to ride a bike without training wheels, he did so over a period of several months.  He never fell.   He inched, slowly, slowly, gaining a little more confidence every day.  He scootched on his feet until he was balanced enough to put one foot on pedal, then two.  He inched some more.  Until one day, he was able to confidently put both feet on the pedals, and pedaled away smoothly and easily like he had been doing it his whole life. ‘

When Paxton learned, he learned in one day.  He fell many times.  He was scraped and bruised and frustrated, and about ready to throw his bike across the street.  He kept getting back on.  Again and again, he tried, fell, got back up.  Each time he got a little bit further.  And by the end of the day his perseverance had also paid off, and he too was riding like he’d been doing it his whole life.

Everett was somewhere between his two brothers.  He reached a point where he didn’t want to ride with training wheels anymore, but at first just wasn’t that interested in riding on two wheels.  He would try here and there, sometimes asking for help and sometimes not.  Sometimes he’d fall, and sometimes he wouldn’t get to that point.  Sometimes he’d go long stretches without wanting to ride a bike at all.   Earlier this year he said, “One of my goals for this year is to learn to ride my bike.”  I told him I thought that was wonderful.   He never mentioned it again though, until yesterday.  He walked into the room, helmet in hand, and said, “I’m going to go out and practice on my bike.”  He took a couple tries on his own, had me hold on to the back of his bike for awhile, then wanted to try on his own again.

Then I took this:

He stayed out another hour after that, by the end of which – yup – he was riding up and down the street (on and off the curb and everything) like he’d been doing it his whole life.

Three kids.  Three styles.  Three bike riders.

That’s unschooling.

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7 Comments

Filed under Everett, learning, life, unschooling

7 Responses to Just Like Riding a Bike

  1. Annie

    Oh man. That is awesome. I don’t even know you guys and I teared up a little with pride!! Aww, so cool you caught it on video too. Nice, simple metaphor, I really like it (even though we aren’t unschoolers)–what a great way to illustrate the concept.
    Annie

    • pathlesstaken

      Thanks!  I love that I caught it on video too… especially the very end when he said, “I did it!!”  <3  I love it when I get to witness my kids being more proud of themselves and their accomplishments than even I could ever be of them.

  2. I love seeing how confidently my children approach each new learning possibility because they have had past successful experiences with things that may have been challenging.  When we, the Unschooling parents, don’t interfere with the natural process of learning a new skill, I believe that the children learn so much more than just The Skill–they learn to trust themselves, an invaluable skill indeed.

    • pathlesstaken

      Oh yes, absolutely!  I love that they’re allowed to learn *all* things this way… with absolute freedom and trust in their own abilities.

  3. Leigh

    Wicked cute!  Loved it!

  4. Yup, that’s unschooling. 🙂 Love it! I’ve got four kids with four different personalities and four different learning styles … maybe more! 

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