I love both of these bikes. They were both about $100. Both have nice, sturdy frames. Both have thick, foam tires that won't puncture. Both have no gears to maintain. Both are pedal-less bikes.
Why pedal-less?
Training-wheels don't really train. Keeping your balance on a bike with training wheels is very difficult. Going around a corner with training wheels is difficult. And yet, the child thinks that they need them and are terrified to go without them. I know I was. With a pedal-less bike, the child learns to balance first, slowly and at their own pace, then when they are ready, they quickly and easily transfer to a pedal bike.
Yesterday we bought our daughter a Strider, purchased from a local dealer, Alpine Adventures, but also available with accessories from www.stridersports.com. My good friend Ashly bought one for her toddler and recommended it to me. We bought from a local dealer to make sure it would be small enough for petite Helen, and it was.
We love both of these bikes. Both are high-quality and we imagine that they will hold up to the wear and tear of the large family we intend to have. There's nothing cheap about either one.
If you are purchasing for a 3-year-old, I would recommend the mini-glider because it comes with the seatpost quick release, which we use a lot, especially when other kids want to try it (and they do!). It also has the break built in, and a nicer foot-post.
If you are purchasing for a 1-2 year-old, I recommend the Strider. The seat is in front of the back tire instead of over it, which lets the seat go much shorter, even though the frame isn't that much smaller than the mini-glider. It still has a footrest, although it will be awhile before she can use it. The handlebar also goes shorter than the glider. Michael likes the handlebar design more on the Strider. You can purchase a break and a seat adapter separately on the Strider website.
So there's my review. There are other pedal-less bikes out there, like the WeeRide, the Kinderbike, among others, but these are the two that we chose and that I have experience with.
My mother must said these words a thousand times. I was a bookworm, and I spent much of my youth practicing as well. Granted, there were many hours spent in trees, hiking, and in playgrounds, and whenever I was outside I loved it. It just wasn't second nature to me to say to myself, "You haven't been outside today".
It still isn't, and my children suffer for it. Recently I stumbled upon this forum post about the Charlotte Mason method. It is important to have nature WALKS and not just nature talks. I realized that my children could gain much from this, and so I sent out an e-mail to our local homeschooling group and asked if there were other parents interested in doing nature walks for toddlers/preschoolers. There were! Now it is officially on our schedule to go outside, and it has been wonderful. Yes, it is sad that I have to schedule it, but at least we're going. I am glad that I was able to recognize this weakness of mine and to find a solution for it.
Yesterday we went to the Stokes Nature Center. Here are a few pictures of our adventure.
Dress them up warm!
What about the baby? I think he survived.
When we got to the nature center, they had a bird feeder and the children loved seeing these native birds from the window:
Today I wanted to share some tidbits about how we use Glenn Doman's crawling track in our home. (As seen in Teach your Baby to be Physically Superb, and How Smart is Your Baby?) We have been using the crawling track with my son since he was about a month old. Doman's book mentions how lucky the baby is who has parents who bring the crawling track to the hospital with them, but I find that using the crawling track from birth is a little bit impractical. Even if I did go to the hospital for my births, the last thing I would want to pack around is a bulky crawling track! Some of Doman's ideas have to be taken with a grain of salt, but please understand that Glenn Doman is one of my heroes.
So, we don't use the crawling track from birth, mostly because I want to wait until the umbilical chord has healed before laying them on their tummy. The other thing that I don't do is have the crawling track right next to our bed. We were originally going to do this, and that is why we put a "wall" on one end (the top end in the video). We did this with the idea that the crawling track would be elevated between our bed and the wall, and if the baby crawled the length of the crawling track at night, the wall would protect them from crawling onto the floor. However, in practice, I prefer to have the baby sleep right next to me. It's better for breastfeeding and for helping me respond to the baby's needs. I don't recommend adding the extra wall onto the end, it was a lot of extra work.
What we do do with the crawling track is use it every day, mostly as prescribed by Glenn Doman. We do the short, specific sessions to encourage the baby to move, but I rarely leave them to explore in the crawling track for extended periods. Considering his older siblings, we do this for his own safety. (Plug for babywearing!)
When they are first learning how to use it, I put my hands behind their feet as pictured below. When the straighten their legs, they are propelled forward. When the bend their legs, my hands follow. In this manner, they experience success from the beginning. For this exercise, I like to have them fully clothed so that they are as slippery as possible.
Phase two, using a book instead of my hands. Now they have to a create blank space to move forward.
Phase three starts at around three months of age for us, where the child has to move independently. Clothing for this is a simple onesie. It makes the body slippery, and gives the arms and legs some traction to work. I still help sometimes. My son in this video primarily used his arms at first, and would become frustrated when his arms were struck behind him. I would gently move his arms forward and he would propel himself forward again. Rinse and repeat. Now he uses his legs, and sometimes makes pretty good time getting down the track. In this video he is 4 1/2 months old.
So What's the Point?
The goal behind using a crawling track is to teach children that moving their limbs can ultimately result in transportation. But there's more than that. Using the crawling track helps their brain develop as they learn to understand the third dimension sooner. As they move down the track, objects become closer. Reaching mommy's arms, or a red ball, or any other object becomes a specific, reachable goal. That's empowering for a newborn! At one month old, my two children who have used the track are usually very passive, but when they are placed on the track, you can watch a change come over their face. The wheels are turning inside. When they reach their goal, they smile and are empowered. The crawling track is worth it for that alone.
For more information, I refer you to Glenn and Janet Doman's books. There are a lot of enrichment activities that they provide that are beyond the scope of this post.
Our experience with Doman's "Physically Superb" program
“How to teach your baby to be Physically Superb” is a book that has truly changed the way I interact with my children and how I view their physical development. Now it is a big part of our homeschooling program. I think some of the things he recommends doing in the book are somewhat impractical, like recording how far your child crawls or walks each day to measure improvement. I just did not want to deal with that, but applying the principles have really helped my children. There are a lot of things you can do with your child around the home with things you already have. This book is very different from Doman's other books. It's fully illustrated too.
Some of the things I learned from it are things like dressing your baby for success as they are learning to crawl and walk. For example, having a child wear pants while they're crawling on the carpet is important so that they can be comfortable, and the rough surface of the carpet won't discourage them to try. For walkers, a hard surface without socks or shoes is ideal because it is easier to balance. I spent a lot of time with Peter in the kitchen when he was learning to walk, and it really did make a difference. I also did not hold his hands when he was learning because the book says that the act of holding your arm above your head throws your body off-balance. That made sense to me. When I was helping him learn to walk, I only offered him back up support, catching him if he lost his balance, keeping my support at his waist level. He was walking solidly at 10 months, and I know it was because of the help this book gave me.
His book also talks about the importance of mobility for brain development, not just physical development, as children learn about spatial recognition, and can explore their world. (Baby-wearing is also great for brain development for the same reason.) So don't lock your kid up in a car seat all day. Really the only expensive equipment he recommended was the monkey bars and the crawling track, but there are directions for making them at the end of the book if you choose to do so. Most of it is practical things you can do around the home.
The brachiation ladder
Brachiation ladders are essentially monkey bars. Brachiation ladders help children develop their lungs and upper arm strength. Babies naturally have a lot of upper arm strength, but they lose it if they don't use it, and this is a way to encourage them to maintain it. A lot of the reflexes that babies have are similar to other primates, and other primates need that strength to hold on to their mother at birth, and then for transportation. Here the book appeals to our evolutionary development, and I believe in the Creation theory, but I can take it with a grain of salt. The truth is, we have those reflexes, and the brachiation ladder can help children take advantage of those reflexes. We made a brachiation ladder and Peter LOVES it. We didn't quite make it to Doman's specifications. See detailed instructions to build a brachiation ladder here.
Ours is 5 feet tall and 6 feet wide, and was made mostly by 2x4s instead of 2x6s (except for the base). The bars were made from 3/4" oak dowels spread 6 inches apart, and the ladder is 18" wide, which is the size Doman recommends for ages 18-36 months. It comes apart in 3 pieces and is easy to transport and store, there's two bases and the ladder. The ladder height is adjustable, we have ours set up so Peter stands on his tip-toes and can reach the bars, so he can independently swing on them. It took my husband and a neighbor about 8 hours to make two, plus the time I spend sanding and painting the ladder, which was also a time consuming thing. The cost was about $45 per ladder, plus the paint which we already had. This price was much less then the estimates I've seen other places to make one. We filmed a lot of the process and are going to make a video, which of course I'll share when we actually do it. Right now Peter is more in the pre-brachiation stage. He likes to move his hands around on the bars, but mostly we let him hang for a few seconds, and he just squeals with delight when we do. We count to three before we let go, and he always laughs in preparation. Of all of the Doman things we've done, this is his favorite, and he requests it several times a day. It was a lot of work to make it, but now we have a very beautiful and useful thing for our children to use, and we're in the beginning stages of parenthood, so we plan on using it for a long time.
We keep our ladder in the nursery. We're co-sleeping, so no bed in the nursery makes a little bit more room. We also store some of Peter's larger toys under the ladder and move them when we brachiate. I know some people put the ladders over the children's bed and that seems to work for them. But we're blessed to have a nursery where it fits, and I don't know if I would want one in our living room. My parents have an outdoor play gym with monkey bars on it, and my little siblings use it A LOT, so an outdoor set is of great benefit too. I know we use our set a lot more because it is inside, especially in the winter.
One safety concern we now have is that our neighbor's older child climbed on top of their ladder and fell through, and the bars were too close for his head to fit. Fortunately it was close enough to the ground for him to stand up and he was alright, but it's a bit scary in that respect.
We wanted to make a brachiation ladder for our children, but when I saw the instructions of how to make one in Glenn Doman’s book, I thought -- I can improve on that design to fit our needs better. I did learn some things that I would have done a little differently on my ladder now that I have it, but overall I like the portability and cost of the one we did.
I have tried to take a lot of the guess work out of the process for you, but if you don't want to make a brachiation ladder because the project seems daunting, but you really want a ladder, I found a link to a carpenter who will make a brachiation ladder for you. You can also look into hiring a local carpenter if you give them the plans.
I wanted my ladder to be smaller than 10 ft long and 8 ft high -- where would we put it if it were that big? So we made it 6 ft tall and 6 ft long with a base of 4 ft. I also wanted to make it portable, aka, easy to take apart. We sacrificed a little bit of sturdiness for the portability, but it was a decent compromise.
NOTE: I made ours just less than 6 feet long -- 69 inches. If we would have made it a foot longer it could have fit over a twin size bed length wise which might be nice for some of you.
Materials
We spent about $100 to make two ladders, one for me and one for a friend that was letting me use his garage and tools, so close to $50 a piece.
To make a brachiation ladder we needed:
Lumber - we bought framing pine wood. It's cheap, prolific (you can be choosy because there is so much), and easy to work with. We were pretty particular to pick out strait boards without big knots or blemishes.
NOTE: a 2x4 is measured before it gets sanded, so a 2x4 is really 1.75 x 3.75 inches. Don't let that throw your math off.
We bought:
1 - 8 ft 2x6
7 - 7 ft 2x4(you may need one or two more 2x4 boards if you want to make it taller or longer. I used the extra from the end of the ladder and frame to make the support braces plus a little scrap wood we had.)
7 - 3 ft long 3/4 inch oak dowels
2 - 4 inch bolts with nuts and 2 washers each (needs to go through two 2x4s and have room for the nut and washers)
4 - 2 inch washers with small center whole
2 - 4 inch small diameter bolt and wing nut (needs to go through two 2x4s and have room for the nut and washers)
If needed:
Box of 3 inch long wood screws
Wood glue
Sand paper
Tools:
Power drill / screw driver
Miter or chop saw
Drill press
Drill bits same size as screws for pilot holes and 3/4 inch for dowels
Tape measure
Power sander
Quick Square for measurements
Level
Making the Ladder
Before I get into the steps, I have to say that you can make a brachiation ladder all by hand, but that it will not turn out as nicely. Having the proper tools to cut and drill the wood is paramount to having a solid ladder. We did not have a drill press and drilled the holes by hand held drill. Some of the holes do not go in exactly strait and we had to sand them lots bigger so the dowels would go though the frame, then the ladder, then back through the frame. If you can, save yourself the trouble and use a drill press.
Step 1 - cut the boards. You will need:
4 boards, 72 inches long for frame sides
Adjust these to the height you want the frame to be. We made a brachiation ladder frame set at 5 feet tall and the other one at 6 ft. We liked the 6 footer a lot more as far as height, but you decide. 2 boards, 69 inches long for ladder sides
Cut two lengths of board the length of ladder you want. This is important to get right so that you have even spacing of rungs along your ladder - you want the spacing of your ladder rungs times the number of rungs + 1 1/2 inches on each end. So we wanted 12 rungs (we're counting spacing between rungs so 11 spaces between rungs) - that's 11 x 6 + (1.5 x 2) = 69 inches long. That’s pretty close to 6 feet. If you were doing rungs 8 inches apart you would probably do 10 rungs for (10 x 8 + (1.5 x 2) ) = 83 inches long -- one inch shy of 7 feet. 2 (2x6) boards for frame base
Cut the 8ft long 2x6 in half for the base bottoms. 2 boards 22 1/2 inches long for top of frame
If you can use the scraps from the other 2x4's for this, great. 2 boards 20 inches long for the ladder angle braces 2 boards 18 inches long for the ladder angle braces
Cut these from scraps you have. You need to have these overlap to a length of about 31 inches. The measurement is not exact as you adjust the length as you put it together. The 20 inch long one does not need to be a 2x4, it could be a 1x4. I cut an inch off the corners on these boards to make them semi rounded so that I didn't have corners poking past the frame or ladder. 6 boards 12 inches long on the longest side for frame base and top support angles
These need to be 45 degree angles on both ends and you will get more out of your board if you cut them at the angle already, then flip it over and cut the next one. Two of these can be from a 1x2 or other scrap wood. 10 dowels at 18 inches long 2 dowels at 26 inches long 2 dowel pegs at a tiny bit less than 3 1/2 inches
To get the 10 dowels in the middle, you cut 5 in half. Measure each piece though because the dowels are not all exactly even and it's important that they are exact for your ladder. The peg pieces come from the ends of the 26 inch long pieces.
TIP: we set up a fence to bump the dowels against so that we had the exact measurement for each board and didn't have to measure each time.
Step 2- Construction
Mark the frame side for drilling and drill 3/4 inch holes. Start 2 inches from the top end and mark a line every 6 inches. If you want something different than 6 inches, make sure they are evenly spaced out as you need the ladder and the supports to move the same amount up or down when you adjust the height. Mark and drill 3/4 inch holes on the ladder. Measure and mark 1 1/2 inches from the end, then every 6 inches (unless you are doing 8). You do this the entire length of the board. If we did our math and measuring right, you should have 1 1/2 inch left when you're done. When you drill the ladder - only go half way in - no more than one inch deep. This will make the dowels go into the side, but not all the way through. Drill the first and last hole all the way through as you want the dowel to go all the way through and into the frame.
Drill a small pilot hole all the way through the holes with a drill bit the same size as your screws.
TIP: we used a speed square - it has an edges that rides down the side of the board and makes measuring the drill hole in the center of the board very easy.TIP: stop drilling just before you get through the other side, flip the board over and start drilling from the small pilot-hole bigger bits leave; this will prevent the wood from chipping as the bit comes out the other side. This can also be achieved if you drill with your work clamped to a scrap piece of wood.
Now we make a ladder
Place the ladder sides next to each other and lay out the 10 dowels that go in the center. Put glue in the holes and spread it around. Put the dowels into one side of the board poking up, and then put the other side on top of them. It might help to wiggle one dowel at a time back out a bit so that it connects inside the hole of both sides. Use a hammer to tap the two sides together firmly seating all 10 dowels into both boards.
Pilot drill a hole from the side of the ladder into each dowel. This is CRITICAL as you will split the dowels if you do not. Seal the deal by putting a screw into each dowel.
Wipe up any glue that came out. Wood glue is water soluble till it dries.
We use glue so the dowels don't spin when they are put together, but the screws really hold the ladder together.
Build the frames (do this twice)
NOTE: I measured my ladder width once it was put together so that I would get this part right. Mine was 1/8 inch narrower than 19 1/2 inches so that's how wide I made my frame. You might need to make it slightly narrower or wider. Err on the side of being slightly wider.
On the 2x6, mark two lines for the sides of the frames 19 1/2 inches apart (9 3/4 inches from center on both sides). We marked another line 22 1/2 inches apart so we could see where the frame sides would sit to drill holes etc.
Drill two pilot holes in the 2x6 base and then attach the sides of the frame with two screws through the bottom of the base.
Drill two pilot holes in the 22 1/2 inch top boards Measure the top part of the frame to be 19 1/2 inches on the inside and attach the across the top.
Now that you have the square frame put together, it will be wobbly without the support angles in place. You need to square the frame up just like you would a door frame. To do so, lay down the frame. Tweak it till the opposite corners measure the same i.e. measure from the top right corner to the bottom left corner and top left to bottom right (forms an X). Once it's trued, attach the top angle support using screws. This should make it stay put long enough to add the two supports at the bottom.
Creating your support pegs
Drill a hole through the center of the 3 inch dowel pegs. Run the 4 inch small bolt through a washer, and then through the hole in the dowel. When you use these, you will add the washer and wing nut to the other side. Putting it all together
Once the glue in the ladder has had a chance to set, we want to add the ladder stabilizer supports (we did put screws in it so you don’t have to wait days for it to dry before you do this step). Drill a hole for your bolt between rungs 4 and 5 - should be about 22 inches from the end of the ladder. Drill another hole into the 18 inch board near the end of the board. Fasten the 18 inch board to the ladder with the bolt using a washer in between and on the side with the nut. Do this on the same side of the ladder board but between rungs 8 and 9.
Drill a 3/4 inch hole into the two remaining 20 inch boards near one of the ends. Now the balancing act...
This part requires at least two people as the ladder will be very unstable while you do this. It might help to push one of the frames up against a wall.
Put the ladder into the frame towards the top by sliding the 26 inch dowel through a hole in the frame, then the ladder, and then through the frame again. If you cannot slide it through the holes -- it means they are not aligned and you will have to sand the holes a little bigger in the frame and / or ladder so that the dowel fits through them all. Attach the other side of the ladder so it is in the other frame. Just let the 18 inch boards hang loosely for now.
Attach the 20 inch boards to the frame using the dowel pegs skipping two holes or about 18 inches from where the ladder is connected.
The goal will be to square the ladder to the frames, and then tack the two boards together (the 18 inch and the 20 inch). You should have about 8 inches overlap to connect the boards.
To square it up, you can use a large carpenter's square, or you can make the frame level vertically and then the ladder level horizontally, but that might be really hard. It doesn't have to be perfect, just close. Once you have the frame and ladder how you want them, Hold the 18 inch board up underneath the 20 inch board and mark where they meet. Once you have it marked fasten the two boards together using nails or screws. (We used an air compressor and finishing nails to tack them together, but that was because it was just handy.)
When one side is done, move to the other side.
NOTE: if the ladder will not fit inside the frame at all because there is not enough space - then you might be able to squeak some room in by taking off the top piece of the frame and widening the frame at the top, then re-attaching the top.TIP: we used a Dremel tool to sand the holes bigger. As we drilled the holes by hand - they were terribly skewed and we had to sand a lot.
Finished!!!
Wow! Now you have made a brachiation ladder. It's portable, adjustable, and yours. Some final thoughts:
We sanded and painted the boards before we glued the dowels in. This made it easy to work on and not get paint on the dowels. I suggest you do some finish work on it before you get it all put together.
This design allows for some wiggle, but it is strong enough. In the next video, I hang from it and shake it hard. I weigh 165 lbs and can shake pretty hard. My little 2 year old would have a hard time making it move but just a tiny bit.
3/4 inch dowels won't hold more than a 6 year old and so the brachiation ladder doesn't need to be bigger than what a 6 year old could reach. We figure by the time our kids need something bigger and more solid, we will make a new one with 1 inch dowels.
The spacing between the bars of 6 inches is dangerous. Our boy can fit his body between the bars but not his head. That means that if we let him play on top and he were to fall through the bars, he could be seriously hurt. Just be careful and watchful. He is drawn to climb to and play on top. I haven't figured out If netting or some sort of board across the top would prevent that or not or how to set it up so that it would protect him. Any suggestions?
Dimensions of our ladder:
(4 - 2x4) height 72" -- ends up being 75 after you add the top and bottom boards (2 - 2x6) base width 48" (2 - 2x4) top width 22.5" inside frame width 19.5" ladder width 19.4" (5 - 3/4" oak dowel cut in half) rung width 18" (2 - 3/4" oak dowel) end rungs to hold ladder 26" (2 - 3/4" oak dowel) 3" piece to hold support, get from scrap of other dowels (2 - 2x4) ladder length 69" (12 rungs 6" apart = 66" + 1.5" at each end) (2 - 2x4) support beam length 31" other scraps to build the support triangles screws (2) 4" lag bolts with nuts and washers to hold supports to ladder (2) 4" bolts with washers and wingnuts
