Blog 19 of Top 25 Biking Families

Favorite Blog Posts

• Make Your Own Balance Bike
• Homemade Bike Festival
• To the Super Playground - five kids on three bikes

What I Like About The Biking Lifestyle

Flying along free on our bike together is very fun. Biking more would be easy for your family to grow into too. It's great that our kids know that we can get around to places we like to go, on our own power. I love to talk with our sons on our tandem as we ride along and hear about their day. They always tell us so much when we are on a ride together. And buying less gas makes it cheap. We like watching the seasons change and being outdoors. Meanwhile, our sons like watching big yellow machines dig holes in the city.

How Often We Bike Versus Drive

We almost always bike instead of driving when we can. You can too and it doesn't have to happen overnight. We mostly bike to school, work, shopping and out to visit friends, museums or the park. It's easier for us to ride plenty of these places and not have to park the car. If you have a favorite park, friend or library nearby, why not take the bike or bikes out to make that little trip to start off? Find a quiet way to get there using a map or by bike testing routes alone to discover where there is less traffic and fewer distractions. Find a forgiving place that has bathrooms, or a nice place to rest, and enjoy the accomplishment of getting there together. Practice riding with your kids in a big park or a school or university campus to feel comfortable before taking off to your first destination. As you bike more to this first easy place you'll build up your skills and confidence in no time and have lots of fun! You can do it!

A Safety Tip For Biking With Children

Read the beautiful book The Bear's Bicycle by Emilie Warren McLeod with your kids. Funny, perfect, covers safety well. Then practice riding with your kids at a campus or big park to try out stops and starts. Get everyone up to speed using brakes and turning. Pretend that pathways are intersections. Practice stopping ahead of the "street" and slowing down to turn. Check if the seats need to be raised. Remember if you are riding on the sidewalk that cars do not expect kids on bikes. Before getting off the sidewalk to cross the street make eye contact with the drivers at the intersection before emerging out onto the street with your kids and encourage the children to do the same. We choose quiet routes with the kids instead of the busier ways to get places. Sometimes it takes a little longer but it feels much safer to go on quieter routes. If you are going to try to ride to school or work once a week take your bike out and try out a few routes to test the ride a little beforehand.