Morning Ride

This is Kieran's 3rd time riding his bike to school.
Molly took this photo of us for her slideshow preso. I just got it this morning.
Kieran's bike looks so small next to mine.

The school is just over 2.5km (almost 1.5 mi) away. And it gets busy after 8:00am with people heading to work or dropping their kids to school. So we leave around 7:30ish so we don't have to deal with drivers running stop signs, making u-turns, running red lights on a right hand turn, speeding in a 40km zone and coming out of driveways blindly.

Most times I'm sweating from nervousness, but Kieran loves it. He looks forward to it. He's been asking me if he can ride his bike to school ever since his training wheels came off 2 years ago. I've always said to him that it's too dangerous, but really what am I doing? I'm not helping him by limiting him. I need to teach him how to do it, and do it safely and smartly. This way, when he goes on his own, I can know that he will make good decisions and be alert. We forget that we are our kids first and longest running teachers. If they struggle, practice with them daily til they get the confidence to do it on their own. Don't cope out with a lame excuse. We have a responsibility to them to not get frustrated, to take the time and practice with them so they learn how to do everything we do, and do it better.

So on May 11th I agreed that I would ride with him to school. And the next morning we got up early, had breakfast, changed and brushed our teeth and we headed off to school with me on my bike and Kieran on his bike.

He was so excited.
We went cautiously, at first I would ride on the sidewalk with him trailing me, then when we got into the High Park area, I rode on the road giving him instructions as he rode on the sidewalk. He made it down the hills and up the hills. His balance is really good. And I was looking out for cars, giving him some direction when pedestrians were on the sidewalk and we had to find a line go around them. It was nerve wracking for me.

But he did it. And he was so proud. And he said I didn't have to come upstairs to see him to his class, that he can go on his own.
Afterschool I met him to ride home with him. It's busier then. The Runnymede TTC station is under construction so we've got construction and pedestrians and cabbies. But once we past that area it's smooth sailing.
He was telling me that his classmates were playing with the lights on his helmet, and taking turns putting it on.

On May 26 we rode to school again for the 3rd time.
It was raining a lot last week, so he didn't ride at all.
But it's getting pretty routine.

He loves riding his bike.
The one good thing about riding to school. He goes to bed early and will wait in his room for a story. And will fall asleep. He knows that in order to get up early enough to ride his bike, he needs to sleep earlier.

Wonder how long this will last? I'm going to milk it for what it worth.