Why Your Kids Should Go Bike Riding This Summer and the Lessons They’ll Learn

Aside from learning to walk and talk, one of the more formidable moments of a child’s young life is when they first learn to ride a bike. Bicycling is a great pastime for children, and it can grow into a lifelong interest as well, whether they continue to love leisurely riding a cruiser or taking up mountain biking or speed cycling as adults. But learning to ride a bike as a child is more than just a Hallmark milestone; learning to ride a bike can help improve a child’s coordination, it can foster a sense of independence and individual capability, it can help encourage them to stay active and exercise, and it can also teach them about the importance of safety.

Most children start out on a tricycle or a two-wheeler fitted with training wheels. These types of bikes provide balance so that children can ride safely while they build their own sense of skill and prowess. When a child is ready they can upgrade to a two-wheeler, free of any support, and ride on their own. This progression definitely takes practice, but it also takes a sense of courage as well. Physically riding a bike takes a lot of coordination and thought, especially early on, so by learning to ride a bike children are utilizing these important parts of their brain in order to propel themselves forward.

Practice makes perfect! Leveling up to a two-wheeler can help provide kids with a tangible goal that they can strive for, which can help kids when they set goals for themselves throughout their lives as well. Therefore, kids will have to develop their skills and improve their balance and coordination, they will be improving their mental-physical relationship while learning to meet a goal, and gaining a sense of independence and accomplishment once they successfully do so.

Biking can help teach other important lessons, too. Cycling is a physical activity and can be a great outdoor activity during all seasons even the winter months. It is becoming increasingly important that parents find ways to keep kids active, especially with the rising obesity problem in the US, and bicycling can help keep kids on the move. Not only is it fun, it keeps them physically active and gives them plenty of exercise.

In order to ride a bike safely, kids will also need to learn about the safety measures they need to take while cycling. This skill-set will apply to various other aspects of life, even if the safety measures and rule are not exactly the same. Kids should definitely wear a well-fitted helmet, and elbow pads, kneepads, and even gloves should be considered as well. Aside from wearing the proper equipment, as well as the appropriate clothing and footwear, kids should also know how they should treat certain potential incidents such as if they cannot brake or if they lose control of the handlebars for any reason or if they fall. The goal is to get kids to practice safety and bike well, but accidents happen and it is important that kids know exactly what to do in these situations so they understand how to prevent injury in themselves as well as others.

There are many benefits to teaching your child how to bike. It can help teach them a variety of different life lessons and skills while also being fun and active. And you never know, biking and cycling may just become a lifelong hobby of theirs for years to come. So make sure to grab your bikes as a family and enjoy the summer!

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3 Ways Puzzles Can Benefit Childhood Development

Personalized Puzzles

It has been long known that puzzles can provide a wealth of benefits for children in their early development. Puzzles range in style and difficulty depending on a child’s age, and even some of the most popular toys for infants happens to be a form of a puzzle – think of simple shape puzzles where children place the correct shape into their corresponding cutouts. As children get older, they are able to complete and understand more complex puzzles, and these objects are more than just fun, they can also be integral to helping develop several areas of a child’s intelligence and understanding.

There are three main skills that puzzles can help bolster in young children: physical skills, cognitive skills and emotional skills. These skills act as fundamental building blocks when it comes to a child’s development, and they can also help encourage social skills if children complete puzzles with parents or friends.

Physical Skills
The physical aspect of puzzle solving involves picking up the pieces and moving them around in order to make sure that they fit. This helps develop special reasoning and understanding in children, and can even help with hand-eye coordination as well. Moving the pieces helps with fine motor skills as well as gross motor skills, though this typically depends on the type of puzzle and the level of difficulty, but both aspects are vital.

Cognitive Skills

Kids Puzzles

These skills are activated as your child uses logic and reasoning to figure out how a piece fits into the puzzle at large and which way each piece will need to be placed in order to fit with the other pieces. It helps kids understand the physical world around them, especially since they are actually manipulating pieces to fit in a certain way. Understanding what the end result of the puzzle is, in order to determine how each little fragment fits in, is essential to problem-solving as well. Shape recognition is a great skill as well, though it may be more emphasized in puzzles for younger children.

Emotional Skills
You may be wondering how a puzzle could possibly help to develop emotional skills, but the fact that puzzles are an activity with an end goal helps encourage patience and goal-setting in general. The main goal is to finish the puzzle, but the task of finding out how each piece fits together provides additional smaller goals as well, offering smaller bursts of satisfaction and achievement along the way. Knowing that each piece placed in the puzzle is a success, kids learn to understand the benefits of patience – even if the puzzle will take work to complete, they will feel a sense of satisfaction after taking the time to figure out the problem and complete the puzzle.

KD Novelties offers personalized puzzles that can help encourage children to engage their problem-solving skills. Personalized with their name, children will be interested in the end result.  Solving the puzzle and spelling their name will provide hours of learning fun, boost confidence, and enhance letter recognition.

Like books, learning to love puzzles can help open children up to other beneficial problem-solving games. Puzzles come in many shapes and sizes whether it is a math problem, a Rubik’s Cube, an intricate Lego set, or even a riddle. Puzzles can be both physical and not, but there are plenty of developmental benefits to introducing kids to puzzles early on.