Balance Bike

Balance Bike

Today the children wanted to get the balance bikes out and ride around the bike track. They got the bikes out of the shed and talked amongst themselves about which bike they wanted as some were smaller than others. I watched as a group of boys were going up the ramp and they were using their legs to get them up the ramp. As they came down the ramp they steered the bike around the corner in the direction that the bike track goes.

I watched the boys do this over and over again and watched how they needed to do a number of different things at the same time to get the bike to go. Balancing on the bike while moving which is also known as dynamic balancing and is good for motor development (Bullard, 2010).  They needed to move their legs to make the wheels turn and the bike move. Steering the bike is another important part of riding a bike so they can move in the direction they want to move and stop from crashing into things. By children riding bikes builds on a number of different skills such as co-ordination, physical skills, muscle strength and spatial awareness (Bullard, 2010).
 I can see how a child can gain so much confidence when they ride a bike, and how they use their body to help with the whole process. Ministry of Education (1996) states that  through exploration children develop increasing control over their bodies, including development of loco motor skills, non-loco motor skills, manipulative skills, increasing agility, co-ordination, and balance (p.86).

I have seen how bikes have changed over the years and the balance bikes shows how technology changes and evolves. The balance bike is technology as it is a tool that can be used to get us from one place to another and quicker than walking.The New Zealand Curriculum (2007) states that technological practice is about innovation and adaption and that's what has been done with the balance bike. It has been adapted from the two wheeler bicycle as it has no pedals and focuses on balance rather than the peddling. These balance bikes are also made out of wood which is another adaption.

I thought about how important it is to have bikes in early childhood centres as some children may not be fortunate enough to have a bike at home. I also see at my preschool how the younger children are learning from the older children.This is where tuakana-teina relationships provides opportunities for the younger children to learn from the older children (Clark & Grey, 2010). The younger children  may learn to ride a bike faster if they are around older or more experienced peers than if they were to learn alone. My last preschool I worked at did not have bikes and I can see the enjoyment that children get from them and the skills they learn well riding them.

The bike track at preschool provides children with the opportunity to ride  bikes together, follow rules and experience different surfaces such as the stones, ramp and also the tunnel. 

Reference List

Bullard, J. (2010). Creating Environments for Learning (Chapter 17, pp. 326-251). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Clark, B., & Grey, A. (Eds.).(2010). Perspectives on early childhood education: Ata kitea te pae- scanning the horizon. Rosedale, North Shore, New Zealand: Pearson Education

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te whāriki, he whāriki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media

Ministry of Education, (2007).Technology Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/Learning-areas/Technology.

The Bike Track

The ramp to go up

The ramp to go down