Cycling UK Forum

I've recently started getting my 6 year old daughter to cycle on the road with me riding behind and further out from the kerb telling her where to go, where to look and when to stop. I find it both stressful and rewarding at the same time. I try to stick to times of the day and roads that aren't too busy. Is this the right approach? Or am I taking her on the road too soon? What other tips do people have?

never too soon to teach road awareness etc., think your approach is just about right. We start 6yr olds in our club and have to do short road stretches to get to where we are doing the rest of the ride.

I have 3 of various ages, 6, 9 and 11. I must admit that I find a 6-year old on the road quite stressful. However, the initial and the long-term rewards are great. My 11 year old is quite happy to go on long bike rides. I use the weekend v. early mornings and stick to v. quiet roads with the younger children.

I have though recently taken a different approach and taken them to a local track club. The basic bike skills are great to learn and they are in a safer environment.

I have 2 daugthers now both teenagers.


I shall not say that 6 is too young, because you know your children. I shall just say how we did it. Wether it was the right thing to do or not Im not sure, there are too many variables to comment.

We happen live in a very rural area. But our single tracked lane is a short cut to the capital and has very fast rude traffic on it daily, our single tracked lane has no speed limit on it. I feel it is a very dangerous place to cycle and never use it during the hot spots of the day. I dont use it myself and wouldnt ask my girls to cycle to the bus for this very reason.

But remember this when teaching cycling skills to wee ones;

Children are unable to judge distances until they are 7 years of age or thereabouts, so she might not be aware of how close she is if she over took a parked car, or cycled next to a ditch.

It isnt until they reach 12 years that they can judge if a car travelling towards them is a long way off, or very close to them.

This is important and is why children do not get cycle training at school until year 6 when they are about 10 years of age as this area of the brain is starting to get switched on.

So bear this in mind with your littlies. We took our daughters to the local school play ground on weekends to learn to cycle. THat is once they had the balance part sorted. We took road cones and made up short twisty routes for them to get balanced with. It worked very well.


Its still scary taking my girls out and about. But short of them not exercising and sitting in front the computer on their weekends....


Good luck and Im sure she will have a lot of fun. Personally I think there is nothing better than proper parenting when parents do 'stuff' with their children and get involved in their lives and really give quality time to their development.



Mary

I did quite a bit of road cycling with my elder son from the age of about 6 but that was some time ago (he's in the pram in the'1973 thread.) Less traffic in the late 70s. I togged him out in a prominent hi-viz top and found that drivers in general showed him a lot of consideration. I always rode behind him and further out in the road where it was busy, two-abreast otherwise. (Takes up the same amount of space but less likely to antagonise people.)

We only ever had one bad experience which I've described on here before. We were on a very posh housing development in a very posh part of Leeds when we were emerging from a tee-junction turning right. My son was part way across the junction when a BMW came round the corner from our left at a silly speed. I screamed to my son to carry on and he did. The BMW driver swerved to his offside. In the meantime a huge dog - great dane size - came bounding across the lawns to my right, apparently with my son as its target. The BMW hit the dog with such force that the dog ended up wedged underneath. It was making a terrible noise and the car was badly damaged. The driver aggravated things by trying to reverse. Suddenly, everywhere was full of very posh people.

For a long time afterwards, if ever my son needed telling about the importance of road safety, the fate of that dog was enough.

I was disappointed when my son lost interest in cycling a couple of years later but no point in trying to make them. My younger son was only ever interested in BMX.

You're not alone with your sentiments Fatboy, I'm presently introducing my six year old son to the road. Fortunately we live in a village, so conditions are generally reasonable.

We get along quite well under VERY close supervision, with positioning as suggested in the OP.

However be prepared for freak moments! We were recently turning right (actually straight ahead from a junction on a bend) No traffic whatsoever but when he got into the white hatched area of road markings he had a crisis of confidence and just stopped, despite my (undoubtedly very clear?! ) instructions. Fortunately no traffic. No problem.

I also position very confidently to protect against passing traffic, taking the primary position wherever necessary. To date all drivers have shown great patience and restraint, with plenty of friendly acknowledgements all around.

Also taking the opportunity to explain road signs!! May be a bit premature with that but with my IAM credentials I can't help myself!

Well if we all followed everybody's safety advice we'd never do anything so we took our two girls on the road as soon as they could ride their own bikes. Difficult at first but the most important thing is that they react straight away to a shout of STOP by pulling straight into the kerb. Maybe we were lucky but they learned quickly and became confident so now at 14 and 13 we have no trouble with them on the roads and they are, on the whole, aware of what goes on around them. They belt confidently up the busy A44 and round a large roundabout to guides and back by themselves once a week.

I did, and still do, notice that motorists tend to take far more care at the sight of a child on the road than they do of me!!