Today we did the “skater pond loop”. It’s a mostly single track easy mountain bike track. Nothing unusual, we’ve done it before. One time H was little, 7ish?, and it involved us taking most of the day to do it. Lots of stops/being tired. Another time I convinced her to go as there was a geocache to find. Then there was the time we went with friends and at least one of the kids was complaining most of the time. H has been known to complain because it was “too hard” “too scary” and that she was “exhausted” – say exhausted while running your hand accross your brow palm out!! Lots of drama. Doing any mountain biking has seemed like too much effort for me – effort in providing motivation, listening to her gripes, endless encouragement and the odd bit of frustration… emotional effort as well as physical. It is true that biking triggers her asthma, but we do have a solution for that in the form of an inhaler!

This time was different. We have been doing a lot of biking on our new electric tandem (1400kms worth) and H was totally excited about riding her own bike and how weird it felt. She bikes up to the other campground with me, no complaint, and even goes off track and does skids! We didn’t discuss doing the skater pond loop, just were going the least road way to the other campground we are looking after at the moment. No one complained or stopped and it suddenly seemed so short – amazing how much longer something seems when you have to do more than just bike it.

H “enjoyed” it. Well “I am not going to get into mountain biking but I enjoyed it until the last bit when I was exhausted” and she pumped up her tyres!

The times we have done this track are iscolated events. We don’t go mountain biking. We don’t even visit the local pump track. With the bike we use to travel around I have all the control. H hardly ever uses her bike. So how did she get better? I can see she is bigger in size… so what is happening in her brain where I can’t see. Should we be using time more often with skills we want children to learn? Instead of chipping away at little bits, could we use time and get big chunks of development when the child develops? Keep their confidence and self-esteem intact.