The wheels have come off!

Training wheels that is...

Alex has finally beat his fear of falling and failing.  He is learning to ride his bike without training wheels!  

We have tried taking them off countless times and nothing worked.  He simply could not get over the fear of falling.  Last week I had a chat with him and told him that we just need to do it and get it done.

It wasn't going very well at first.  Which I had expected.  I can honestly tell you that this has been one of our biggest hurdles to jump.  Alex has a high frustration level and wants to be able to do things right the first try.  He also has a harder time processing so many things at one time (pedaling, balancing, steering). When he "fails" his mind just can't get over the hurdle and keep moving forward.

I talked to him about reading.  How he got really frustrated when he couldn't sound out the words, but we just kept practicing and he jumped up 4 grade levels in just one school year.  I told him he could do the same thing with riding his bike, but he needs to have confidence in himself and not give up.

We practiced quite a bit last week and we really weren't getting anywhere.  Mom is a lot like Alex and wants to just give up when things are going the right way.  I knew I had to come up with an idea that would work with his frame of mind.  So, we started talking about Skylanders and how he is really good at beating levels and beating Kaos (the bad buy for those who don't know).  He told me how he beat the game in hard mode.  The next mode was nightmare mode.  So... I used that with riding his bike.  I told him it was like beating the hardest level of Skylanders.

For the first time, he said, "Mom, I know I need to just clear my ahead about being afraid and start all over."  I told him that is exactly what he needed to do.  So I reassured him that even if I let go, I will still walk/run beside him to help catch him in case he falls.  

We went up and down the road about 8 times.  He was able to go a little bit more each time.  The problem we were facing is that he would stop pedaling and panic.  We were across the road from our driveway and I told him we were going to try and get him into the driveway.  So I pushed him a bit and he actually told me to let go!  Huge moment right there.  He made it to the driveway before he put his feet down.  We tried about 5 more times.  He was doing it and getting further each time!

Dad came out to watch him and cheered him on.  He was so determined to get all the way to dad (who was standing halfway in the driveway).  He did it.  We cheered like it was the first time he walked.  His smile was from ear to ear.

Today we got back out on the bike and after a couple of tries he was going down the road to the neighbors driveways!  He is getting better and better and now he knows he CAN do it!

We are super proud of him!  Rhoslyn was even cheering him on.

I told Alex once we get him riding his bike good, he will have to help me get Rhoslyn's training wheels off.  He agreed.