Teaching your child to ride a scooter

Embark on the exciting journey of teaching your child to ride a scooter with these helpful tips! From choosing the right scooter to providing a safe and supportive environment, discover our expert advice to make the experience enjoyable and memorable for your little one.

A scooter is often your child’s first introduction to the world of wheeled riding. Thanks to scooters, kids can get an earlier head start compared to bicycles. 3-wheeled scooters like the B1 are also safer as they can remain upright by themselves, providing a more stable platform for your child to learn. In this article, we’ll give you some tips on how to teach your child to ride a scooter for the first time!

Equipment

Scooter: For young children between 80 - 120cm, we’d normally recommend a 3-wheeled scooter like the B1 or B1 500 first. If your child is slighty older or taller (95-130cm), you may consider the Play 5. We highly recommend that you have a scooter yourself so you can terach your child by example.

Helmet: Safety first! We strongly recommend a helmet for your child. To offer the best all-round protection, make sure the helmet has full coverage for the back of the head as well.

Pads: Kids will always be kids, so do expect the occasional fall here and there. Knee and elbow pads will help to take the sting out of the occasional scrape.

Cones: For the more advanced or ambitious kids, marker cones will be useful for honing their skills. Soft cones that easily deform are important so they don’t cause your child to go off-balance in the event of a collision.

Find a suitable place

Adventurous kids (and parents!) may consider going to the playground, which we recommend over void decks and pavements, as the rubber flooring will help cushion any falls. Otherwise, the safest place is usually indoors in your own home. Make sure to clear away any furniture with sharp edges. If your home has a split-level floor, block off the entrance to the lower level. If you’re lucky enough to have a driveway, make sure its not sloping.

Practice standing first

Before they can learn to start moving, its better to let them get familiar with the feeling of standing on the scooter first.

Have your child grab the handlebars and stand on the platform.

Keep a firm grip on the scooter so it doesn’t roll. Let him or her experiment with the steering.

Start moving

Slowly, pull the scooter along with you at a comfortable pace for your child.

Stay in front and keep within sight to reassure them. At this point, they are probably quite excited to be moving!

If they’re comfortable, you may change position and push them from behind, gently. This will give them a full field of vision and simulate scooting on their own.

Lead by example

For your child’s first step to self-propulsion, we recommend that you show them by example.

Get on your scooter with one leg on the platform, and gently push off with the other.

Chances are, your child has already started trying!

Learn to stop

Kids scooters like the three-wheeled B1 or B1 500 are designed not to go fast thanks to the type of bearings used in the wheels.

So there is no problem for the scooter to slowly come to a stop once your child stops pushing or kicking.

For faster kids, you may show them how to stop by gently pressing on the yellow fender brake with the same foot they used for pushing.

Faster, two-wheeled scooters like the Play 5 also come with a handlebar brake lever for more intuitive braking.

Obstacle course

Once your child is comfortable with moving and stopping, and has had a few days practice, you may consider honing their skills with a simple obstacle course made from marker cones.

A simple course you can create is the “cone weave”. Place 6 to 10 cones in a straight line, about 120cm apart. Have your child make S-turns, weaving left and right around the cones.

As they get more and more comfortable with turning, you may consider shortening the distance to 90cm.

We hope you had fun with your kid, and we trust they will be excited to discover more places on their scooters! Stay safe, have fun and check back for more scooter articles in the future!