Amazon: Highly Rated Radio Flyer Glide & Go Balance Bike Only $39.99 Shipped (Reg. $65.99!)
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This looks a little too small, but can anyone recommend a good balance bike for a 4.5 year old?
I have the same question…my son is 4.5 yrs too….
Ditto. My twins are 4.5…. Hopefully someone will have a good suggestion!
Just buy a normal bike and take off the pedals. Worked like a charm, plus you can put the petals back on and use it as a bike. Way cheaper.
Brilliant!
Liz, this works?? I have thought of this but then would think, “surely it can’t be that easy!”
It seriously is that easy! :). There are videos on YouTube.
Totally not trying to sound rude but why not just go for a bike? I have a 2 year old so i dont know anything about that age
A balance bike is great to get kids comfortable. They start off straddling it and walking then sit on the seat and walk. Pretty soon they’ll lift their feet up and glide.
Amanda, for my 4.5yo I’d love to get a regular bike but she needs to learn the balance technique before we can graduate up to that. Training wheels and trikes don’t do anything to make the child balance for themselves.
You might be surprised, we all learned to balance without a balance bike. But I think the idea of getting her a real bike and just taking the pedals off is a good idea.
We all learned to balance without a balance bike but after wasting years of learning how to pedal (tricycles, training wheels). If we are going to spend 2 years learning how to pedal, and then be forced to learn how to balance when it’s needed why not just spend 2 years learning how to balance and take 5 seconds to learn how to pedal when it’s needed?
The idea ‘well we did it like that…’ Is what slows down progress.
Also the point is to skip the training wheel stage as this does not truly help with teaching kids to balance. Kids easily go from balance bike to pedaling normal bike hopefully without as much pain. You can research more online
Love balance bikes! Our 5 year old and not quite 4 year old now ride their regular bikes without training wheels and didn’t even have to do anything but get them used to the balance bike.
I’m probably old fashioned here, but my kids learned first how to pedal on a good old metal trike. Then we moved on to the small bike with training wheels and before we knew it, they were ready to ride on 2 wheels. After all, it worked for us, our parents, and our grandparents, right?
Stacy, we have a metal trike but they are nothing compared to balance bikes. Hard to steer, doesn’t force the balance technique, etc.
Umm.. my parents and grandparents didn’t use tricycles. My grandparents didn’t even use bicycles until they were in college.
Speaking from my own experience, other than pedaling I don’t think playing with a trike helped me very much. Something like the balance bike pictured would probably help more with balance issues. Could be better preparation. If it helps, think of it as one of those old fashioned “wooden horse on wheels” toys with two wheels instead of four.
I wasn’t trying to offend anyone, I was just telling what worked for my kids, and being a little sarcastic about the parents, and grandparents thing. You know, like how you hear “well our parents did it and they’re still here”. Maybe you’re a bit older than me, but my mom was born in the 40’s and still has her trike. Some did, some didn’t. I know, times have changed. We learn new and better ways to do things over time, and this might be one of them. My kids are HUGE bike riders, never used a balance bike, and are just fine. Sure, they fell down, got scrapes and bruises, got back up and kept on trying. Don’t over think it. Let kids be kids, and with enough time and repetition, they can do anything. It’s like anything else in this world, some like it, some don’t.
I agree Stacy! That’s what we plan to do for our 4.5 year old:)
REI’s Novara brand balance bike is quite a bit bigger than the strider and other ones we’ve seen and used. It would probably fit a 4-5 yr old.
We had a Kazaam balance bike and it was great! I am sure this would have the same effect. Both of my kids had great balance and in 10 minutes transitioned from a balance bike to a “big bike” w/o training wheels.
Off topic but can anyone recommend a balance bike, plasma car for a 2 yr old beginner? Thank you! 😉
We got our 2 year old a Strider. Two kids later and it’s still going strong!
Thanks Valerie. Will check it out. 😉
We got our balance bike in Germany – I guess this is the norm there. We saw two and three year olds, German children, zipping around on these things. THIS IS THE WAY TO TRAIN A CHILD to ride a bike. My 4 year old transitioned to a pedaled bike with such ease after using his German bike for a few months. It was literally a 5 minute transition for him to learn to ride his pedaled bike.
I’m convinced, just ordered one! Thanks:)
My 18 month old nephew fits on this bike. (he is very tall for his age) I bought it for him when I saw it on a toy clearance aisle and gave it to him earlier this summer. He was excited about it but didn’t really play much with it this summer. I was disappointed but I think he’ll get into it more next year. It came with a bell for the handle bar and he liked that!
The other thing, it only took a few minutes for my brother to put together for him. He needed a ratchet to adjust the seat height.
i will say balance bikes are amazing for small children. My son started riding his balance bike at 21 months and withing a week he was cruising on it. At first it is hard for them, but they get a hang of it, he is now just over 2 and loves it and feels like a big boy like his brothers and sister. I know he will not ever need training wheels on a big, we will skip that stage and teaching him 2 wheels will be so much easier. We are planning next summer at 3 to see how he does on a 2 wheeler! I highly recommend them. There are not a lot of balance bikes that will fit a 4.5 year old, try the pedal removal trick!
Same price at toys r us, but I got it here so I can buy some add-on items from Amazon 🙂
We took pedals off and practiced “balance” and then put those pedals back on, and she learned right away! Money saver!!!!
I saw two sisters (looked like 4 to 6 years in age range) riding their bikes the same way. They were just regular bikes that did not have pedals installed on yet. They were zooming around without balancing wheels. I guess parents utilized the same concept without spending money on two different bikes.