Motivation

Last year I made a deal with my daughter. When she learned how to ride a bike, I would buy her a real bike. She was never very motivated though, and I had to nag her to get her to practice. She made progress but never seem to be able to make everything click.

This year, she has a friend who lives on the next block. Her friend rides a bike and this got Rachel motivated. She wanted to be able to ride a bike to her friend's house. We talked about this last week and she decided that she would learn how to ride a bike on Saturday. I told her that it might take more than one day but she was determined.

It was supposed to rain off and on all weekend so we started about 9 am on Saturday. We went up and down our driveway. I would give her a push to get started and then run alongside her. This was hard on me because I can't run without pain since the accident. She did very well, and by noon she was able to go up and down the driveway with only a little help to get started.

Since she had fulfilled her part of the bargain, we were off to Maplewood Bicycle to pick out a bike. We had looked at them before so I had a good idea what she wanted. Jessica was a great help.

Once we got home Rachel was eager to ride the new bike. It took a while for her to get used to the the hand brakes and to the size of the bike, but she was undaunted. For the rest of the weekend, whenever the rain stopped, whe wanted to be on that bike. Even when she feel she got right back on it. We even went for a ride around the neighborhood together. She was on the sidewalk and I was on the street. This was a little tough for her because the sidewalk is narrow and bumpy with lots of nearby obstacles. I told her that, if the weather was nice, I would take her to a bike trail next weekend. Someplace that is not crowded.