Many parents have young children that really want to ride a bike like the big kids do. It takes years of practice usually before these children can ride a regular bike. They usually end up starting out on tricycles and graduating to bikes with training wheels once they get tall enough. However, there is another option. A wooden toddler bike made in the balance bike style can get the kids riding much sooner, and be a lot of fun.
Wooden toddler bikes made in this style look like a regular bike without the peddles and gears. Children can ride on these wooden toys starting at about one year of age. In the beginning, they just straddle the bike and walk with it. Eventually they work up to sitting on the seat, and then running with it and lifting their feet up so that they learn to balance. These are a great option since they teach the kids to balance safely; their feet can always reach the ground. Most kids move right on to regular bikes without training wheels after they have fully mastered this type of bike.
Although balance bikes are available that are made of metal, many parents prefer wooden toys for their children. There are a number of companies that make these wooden toddler bikes, including PLIM, Smart Gear, LikeABike, and Skuut. They are not as cheap as tricycles, with prices ranging from around $70 to over $300, however, your kids will probably get a lot more out of using this wooden toy than they would from a tricycle.
These wooden toys are very popular in Europe, and becoming more common in the United States. This is because bikes with training wheels are mainly teaching the kids to peddle without actually teaching them to balance. It is a lot more important for them to learn how to balance since peddling is not a very difficult skill. Most kids can learn to peddle quite quickly if they already know how to balance. It makes more sense to learn how to balance, otherwise once the training wheels come off the kid will get a big surprise and will have to spend some time learning to balance better since the training wheels can make kids overconfident.
