Balance Bikes Sessions in EYFS
Balance Bikes: A Powerful Tool for EYFS Learning and Development with Little Bikers
Balance bikes are not just fun toys; they are valuable tools that support children's learning and development across various areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. Let's explore how these pedal-less wonders contribute to a child's holistic growth, and how Little Bikers can help your setting integrate them effectively.
Preschools children enjoying the challenge of the ‘bridge ramp’
Physical Development:
Gross Motor Skills: Balance bikes are fantastic for developing gross motor skills. Children propel themselves using their legs, improving strength, coordination, and control. This links directly to the EYFS area of Physical Development, where children are encouraged to "negotiate space and obstacles safely, with increasing skill and confidence".
Balance and Coordination: Mastering a balance bike requires children to develop balance and coordination. They learn to shift their weight, steer, and navigate, all essential skills for physical development.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development:
Self-Confidence: Successfully riding a balance bike gives children a sense of accomplishment and boosts their self-confidence. They learn to persevere, take risks, and overcome challenges, which are key aspects of personal and emotional development in the EYFS.
Independence: Balance bikes encourage independence as children explore their environment at their own pace. They learn to make decisions, solve problems, and rely on their own abilities.
Social Interaction: Riding balance bikes with peers provides opportunities for social interaction, sharing, and turn-taking, promoting positive relationships and social skills.
Communication and Language:
New Vocabulary: Balance bikes introduce children to new vocabulary related to movement, direction, and spatial awareness (e.g., "fast," "slow," "turn," "stop").
Communication Skills: Children communicate with each other while riding, negotiating turns, and sharing space. They also learn to follow instructions and express their needs and wants.
Understanding the World:
Exploration and Discovery: Balance bikes encourage children to explore their surroundings, observe their environment, and learn about the world around them.
Spatial Awareness: Navigating on a balance bike helps children develop spatial awareness and understand concepts like distance, speed, and direction.
Expressive Arts and Design:
Imaginative Play: Balance bikes can spark imaginative play as children pretend to be racers, explorers, or adventurers.
Creating Courses: Children can use their creativity to design and build obstacle courses for their balance bikes, further enhancing their problem-solving and imaginative skills.
Little Bikers: Bringing Balance Bike Expertise to Your EYFS Setting
Little Bikers specialize in delivering engaging and effective balance bike sessions tailored to the EYFS framework. We provide:
Expert Instructors: Our qualified instructors are passionate about teaching young children to ride and have a deep understanding of child development.
Curriculum-Linked Sessions: Our sessions are designed to meet the specific needs of EYFS children and align with the EYFS curriculum.
High-Quality Equipment: We provide a range of balance bikes suitable for different ages and abilities, along with safety helmets.
Fun and Engaging Activities: Our sessions incorporate fun games, obstacle courses, and challenges to keep children motivated and engaged.
Flexible Delivery: We can deliver sessions at your setting, minimizing disruption to your schedule.
By partnering with Little Bikers, you can:
Enhance your EYFS provision with exciting and beneficial balance bike activities.
Support children's holistic development across all areas of learning.
Foster a love of cycling and active play from a young age.
Contact Little Bikers today to learn more about how we can bring the joy of balance bikes to your EYFS setting.
Sometimes A parent can struggle to teach their child how to ride a bike and thats OK!
Teaching your child to ride a bike is often seen as a quintessential parenting experience, a rite of passage filled with pride and joy. However, the reality can be quite different. Many parents find themselves facing unexpected challenges, turning this seemingly simple task into a source of stress and frustration. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and anticipation, but sometimes our own emotions, or even physical limitations, can inadvertently hinder the learning process.
We often place high expectations on ourselves as parents, and when we struggle to teach our children a new skill, it's easy to feel like we've somehow failed. If you've found yourself feeling this way about bike riding, please know that you are not alone. Many parents experience similar feelings of inadequacy, but it's important to remember that these feelings are often unfounded. There are many reasons why teaching a child to ride can be difficult, and it doesn't reflect on your abilities as a parent. Perhaps your own anxieties about their safety are getting in the way, or maybe your child simply needs a different teaching approach.
And for some parents, physical limitations may make it difficult or even impossible to provide the hands-on support needed for bike riding lessons. This can be incredibly frustrating, but it's important to remember that there are alternative solutions.
That's where bringing in some extra help can make all the difference! Hiring a bike coach can be a fantastic way to provide your child with personalised instruction tailored to their needs and learning style. Coaches offer a calming presence, break down the skills into manageable steps, and offer tons of encouragement. If one-on-one coaching isn't feasible, group learn-to-ride sessions are often a more affordable option and provide a fun, social environment for kids to learn alongside their peers. The group dynamic can be very motivating! Another great option is to check if your child's school or a local community centre offers after-school programmes that include bike riding lessons. This can be a convenient option that fits seamlessly into your child's schedule.
No matter which path you choose, bringing in a skilled instructor offers several benefits. They often have access to safe, traffic-free environments where children can practise without fear. This allows them to focus solely on developing their skills and building confidence in a controlled setting. By enlisting the help of a qualified instructor, you're not only investing in your child's physical and emotional well-being, but you're also giving yourself permission to let go of any guilt or frustration. You can share in their joy and celebrate their success without the added pressure of being the teacher. It's a win-win for everyone involved.
Why Should I Choose a Balance Bike?
If you are a parent and you can ride a bike, you more than likely learnt how to ride via a bike with stabilisers. Many children still learn how to ride with stabilisers and stabilisers still have their place when helping a child understand pedalling however, a child can learn so much more about riding a bike at a younger age by being on a balance bike.
Balance bikes are great for children aged 18 months +, they allow children to really get a feel of what riding a bike is all about and provides them the opportunity to learn and develop in multiple ways including balance, leg strength, coordination, self confidence, resilience, spatial awareness and many more. Of course they also provide the opportunity to get riding a bike earlier!
All skills mentioned above are key areas of development within government guidelines for Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage 1 (KS1). This is why it is great to give children the opportunity to develop and grow in education and out of school, again the balance bike is a perfect tool for this.
Probably the most important element of riding a bike is balance, although pedalling is key to moving, you can’t pedal a bike without balance! It’s important to know that your child (everybody) has seven senses, yes you have more than 5! and no the 6th sense isn’t seeing Bruce Willis!
Vestibular and proprioception are the not so commonly known senses. These senses are relating to movement and balance. If you child is walking they are well on their way to mastering balance and movement and stimulating the development and understanding of their bodies and how they move. After your child has conquered walking and running, why not move on to an activity that develops their senses further.
Balance Bikes are a great tool for promoting physical development and are a fun exiting and will help your child learn so much about their body whilst they are enjoying themselves playing on the bike. Once they are comfortable on the bike and can keep up and even go faster than your own walking pace, you can enjoy the outdoors and explore so much easier, as they will find it much easier and more enjoyable than walking.
So why not get a balance bike and start your child’s 2 wheeled journey.
Why we should encourage children to ride a bike
It all begins with an idea.
Imagine a world in which there was an invention, such a thing which could be your hobby, that provided health benefits, could bring you income in various ways and could get you to where you wanted to be for minimal cost and in some cases faster than ‘modern’ forms of transport!
Yes, that’s right you guessed it, the bike is that invention and it may have been invented years ago, but it may very well be the future for all our children.
When I was growing up (90’s early 2000’s) I was very active. Although I was lucky enough to have computer games at home., I was always happiest outside playing any sport, including riding my bike. My bike was my form of transport (although I didn’t cycle to school) I would cycle to my friends’ houses, to the playing fields to play football, hide and seek and many other childhood games. I was also lucky enough to live near some great woods which were a perfect playground to explore, ride bikes and take risks, some of which were controlled and others not so much! I may not have known back then but I was learning many physical, social and mental skills, which would assist me in everyday life.
Reflecting on my childhood, I have come to realise how things have changed. Many things have changed! Some things for the better and some things unfortunately not. I could list a plethora of statistics on childhood obesity, inactivity levels, mental health issues. However the trend linking all of them is that they are increasing.
It doesn’t take much to see and understand a correlation with personal computer advancements and overall health and inactivity of children. Of course, this isn’t the only reason and many more factors come into play however, it certainly is a big factor.
I sometimes go to the woods of which I spent many childhood summer hours playing in. I go there and I see trees, wildlife, streams and occasionally some dog walkers (remember to pick it up). What I don’t see and it amazes me every time, I don’t see any children playing. In fact, not just in the woods, I hardly see any children playing outside anywhere (it’s like that small town in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang where the child catcher has taken them all away!) Of course, this is a slight exaggeration, but it’s not too far from the truth.
Computers and games consoles were around when I was younger and were certainly played, but being outside with friends was still a large part of many children’s lives. Now children can speak face to face and play games with their friend and not even leave their room.
Cycling isn’t just a hobby, it’s also a mode of transport. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t cycle to school (if I did, it may have been once or twice). I think this is probably down to my parents and convenience, however I don’t remember anyone else cycling to school either. Again, I am sure there were factors and barriers associated with this, as there still is.
Does the school have a bike store? Is the journey safe with the number of cars being used to drop children off?
If a child cycled to school, would they be more likely to cycle for fun, would they be more likely to cycle to the shop, would they be more likely to cycle to work when they leave education, would they be more likely to cycle with their own children to school? I would say yes to all of these, they are more likely.
So how do we make the change now to see this improvement for the future and change behaviors? First, we need to get children cycling and cycling earlier! Create opportunities for children and parents to enjoy a safe space to explore and build confidence on a bike. Working together with councils, governing bodies, government, private, third party and voluntary sectors provides a great opportunity to improve, promote, innovate and develop the current situation.
Young children learn so many things whilst playing, not just physically but socially and mentally as well. They learn to understand the world around them. Providing opportunities for young children to play outdoors should be one of the highest priorities for all of us, parents, councils, educational settings etc
“children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity”
-Kay Redfield Jamison
Cycling can be a huge element of children’s play and learning, both in school and outside of school.
So why is cycling the future?
If together we were able to get all children not just riding a bike at a young age, but also make their cycling experiences fun via engaging structured sessions, provision and infrastructure to continue their cycling journey, then the behavior of our society will slowly become more active, healthy and environmentally aware.
36% of Dutch individuals list that cycling is their main form of transport, compared to 0.5% of Kirklees residents cycling to work (2011 Census). Of course, geographically there are challenges, but with e-bikes on the rise this isn’t as much of a barrier as it may have been in the past. As a country should we have the aim to have the cycling rate of the Netherlands? I say why not!
Changing culture and behaviors isn’t a simple thing and has many challenges, it needs the backing of all involved. How can we make cycling as popular as football? How can we make it safe for children to ride to school? How can we make cycling available for all? There are various ways, but what better way to start by getting children active, healthier and cycling at ages as young as 18 months old on balance bikes, and give the future generation the opportunity to break away from the modern day ‘Peloton’ and lead the way to challenge the current way of thinking at all levels.