Learning To Ride A Bike

Here’s a bit of outdoor and experiential education from Nature For Kids…

While mountain biking this summer my husband and I had a nice talk with a gentlemen on the trail and when we parted ways he said to us, “Look for the open spaces not the rocks”. We laughed and said our goodbyes. One of the first things you learn when mountain biking or alpine skiing is that you should never focus on obstacles, like a tree or rock, in front of you because your body will naturally take you there. Instead you should focus on the open spaces or where you want to go. 

I guess I should have taught this to our son before he headed out to learn to ride his bike this summer. I made the mistake instead of saying…”don’t hit that pole out there”. When he started off he was wobbly but kept on pedaling. He went 5 yards, then 10 and then 20! I was so proud of him. But then I could somehow hear what he was saying inside his little head…”don’t hit the pole, don’t hit the pole”. And what happened. He went right to the pole, like a magnet, the only obstacle in the middle of a 200 sq. foot parking lot. Here’s a short video clip of the incident.

My husband and I got to talking after the ironic event and came to a conclusion. Not only is “looking for the open space” a good rule of thumb to apply while learning new outdoor activities, it’s also a good analogy of how we should live our lives. By focusing on the obstacles in our lives we get hung up on them and have little progress. We should rather focus on where we want to go in life and hopefully get there without any major hang-ups.

Do you have any life lessons you’ve learned while in the outdoors? Let Nature For Kids know by leaving a comment!

nature, kids, bike, biking, mountain biking, outdoor education, learning, experiential education

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