Got my Torker LX 24" for Christmas. It’s been about 15 years since I last rode, and picked it back up pretty quickly. Here’s the situation:
My 6 year old daughter wants to learn how to ride a unicycle and would like one for her 7th birthday in March. She’s tall for her age -4ft, and could pick it up with some practice. Of course, her interest span is that of a 6 year old as well, so I want to encourage her, but don’t want to spend a bundle of dough at this point.
On the other hand, I don’t want to ruin it by starting her out on a total p.o.s. Any suggestions on a model or words of wisdom from someone who’s been there.
Thanks,
Brian
Hi brian
I learnt when I was 4 and a half/ 5
but I am a boy and I think boys have slightly more determination generally speaking,
My dad ran a circus club while I was learning which meant I had an hour or so indoor practice every week which must have helped loads,
I remember I had targets that I set myself or my dad did not sure, there were line across the hall about 1 metre apart and Id set my self a target to get to each one and gradually I learnt
The learning time is quite long at that age for me anyway bout a year to crack it but depends how much you practice
hope this helped
P.s I started when I was young and I am currently the only Level 7 in the uk officially
and was the youngest British Freestyle Champion
so get her learning early
She can learn. My son is 6, 7 in March and he’s picking it up. He’s not the most body-aware kid his age by any stretch, either. Sounds like he’s not as tall as your daughter yet. He has practiced on and off at his leisure for a year and can go about 10-15 feet now.
I am a girl and learned when I was 6. If she’s interested, she’s ready. Keep it fun for her and get her all the knee/elbow/wrist goards in addition to the helmet. It’s more fun when the falls aren’t so painful.
Good luck to her!
Search for posts about King MUni-Man, jason’s five or six year old son. Jason posted quite a bit about him when he was learning but has not posted here for some time. Klaas Bil’s daughters learned at quite young ages I think, too. Search for jason as a member and then all his posts. Search MUni-Man to find posts about his son.
i whish i learned when i was younger 
oh well life goes on and im onlY 16 so i have a life time to catch u people up
I also bought myself a Torket LX 24" for Christmas after a long hiatus from unicycling. Picked up a 20" LX for my son at the same time. He’s 9, but smallish… 4’ 2". I initially cut the unicycle frame down to just below where the orignal slot for the seat post was, cut a new slot with a dremel and it was all good. As it turns out, now that he’s starting to actually ride it, I probably didn’t actually need to cut it down, but it would still be real close. It was easy to do though.
Yesterday, I went and bought ANOTHER 20" Torker LX for my daughter. She’s just tall enough that even when the seat on my sons was all the way up (after being cut down for him) that it’s too short for her. And I was getting tired of adjusting the seat up and down as they traded off…
Practice every day a little
Every day a little
Every day
And someday you can do it.
My daughter is 8 and I got her a 16" United brand uni.
She did the between-two-chairs in the living room thing, then started going from one piece of furniture to another.
Then she uni’ed to school (just a couple blocks), holding my arm. The challenge became to see how many pedals she could do with hands off my arm, and each time she passed her previous record, she’d be psyched.
Now she and I go around the 'hood together, and her next challenge (with a reward of an ice-cream cone) is free-mounting. And she’s pretty close. I better find some ice-cream money!
My daughter learned to ride at age 4 and my son was 6. I think there were two key factors in their learning.
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I pulled a couch away from the wall and let them ride between the wall and the couch. This way they had something on either side to hold onto. A hallway or other setup where they have something on both sides may also be helpful. This did not really help them learn to “ride” but it let them be on the seat and get a good feel for the unicycle. Later we moved outside and used a railing that was just on one side.
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Competition! My kids are fairly competetive with each other. So, as one of them would achieve a new benchmark the other would be more motivated to “beat” them. As it turns out they both crossed the non-rider/rider line the same weekend. And within just a few days after that were riding distances of greater that 100m.
I’ve lost some of my “zeal” for teaching the kids but I expect that by the end of this summer my 5 year old son and his 2 year old little sister will both be riding. I had hoped to get my youngest daughter riding by now (she’s 18 mo. tomorrow) but alas it shall not be.
-mg
OMG!!! I’m twice your age and just started two years ago. Man I feel old right now! 
It’s funny how thing work out, I rode two wheel my whole life and I am (not to be a dink) pretty good, last summer a got on a muni after a year learning on a cheap piece of junk and I haven’t looked back.
You only go through life once so you better try everything at least once.
My daughter learn with 7 years on a 20". At http://www.darja.de you can see that shes going crazy in it 
My son starts at 5 a little bit and now with 6 he starts again and it seems to work. He got a 16" .
The most important is to use the right size I think. If you use a 20" and it is to big, it makes it much more difficult to learn. Must be around 56 - 58 cm from between her legs to the bottom (for sure there is a better word for it)
to fit on a 20" . Its also an advantage to use 114er or 102er Cranks and no 127er.
Thanks for all the great replies -very encouraging. I’ll probably start her out on an 18". -Just wish I could find one in pink!
-Brian
Someone recently posted a video of their child opening up a uni as a present. It was a pink one! He said that he used some kind of tape to do this, so you might be able to do it too!
I see that GILD’s already posted links to the video and pictures, thanks GILD.
I bought the tape from Beard:
<URL:http://www.beard.co.uk/>
It’s the stuff they use for decorating Trans Euro clubs and Radical Fish devilsticks. They usually sell it ready cut for decorating clubs, but they were happy to sell me a roll. GBP7.50/m + p&p, width 60cm. Minimum purchase was 1m, leaving plenty left over for when Jenny has a bike to decorate with pinky purple holographic tape.
That tape is sweet! I never thought of using it for my uni. I recently bought my first (torker lx 24) and am somewhat dissapointed in how plain it is.
Thanks for the idea.
And-- It’s awsome to read about all these young kids on uni’s. I’m 17 and can barely ride, I wish I’d learned when I was young. Kids can pick up anything.
My 7 year old son will be 8 in April. He has been working at riding a 16" Juggle bug over the last year and a half. I never pressured him, I just waited for him to pull it out of the garage and give it ago. He was pretty much self taught, with me just saying, “Try again.” He would often get frustrated, especially in the beginning, but I just kept telling him it would get better. It did. Sometimes it would be months before he took out the unicycle, but lately, it’s been much more frequently. He wants to ride so he can do MUni with me and my MUni friends - kind of cool.
Two weeks ago, he rode 25 feet across the front of the driveway!! I took a video of it, but haven’t had the time to figure out how to post it. But I will, soon.
I was afraid that if I pushed him he might not want to do it. But every child is different. He would only practice for the time he was interested, which in the beginning took only 5 minutes at age 5. But nearing age 8, he will sometimes practice for up to 20 minutes. He wants me to ride, but I found he does better when I just watch and encourage him as I hoot and holler.
Watching him ride across the driveway was one of those priceless moments that we parents will never forget.
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Me too.
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My first unicycle was a 21st birthday present. I had it a few days early and I was just about riding by my 21st birthday. Unfortunately, there are lots of skills that I’ve never learnt simply because, by the time I learnt to ride, I was old enough to worry about hurting myself. Kids bounce.
It was natural that Jenny would want to learn to ride a unicycle, because Daddy rides one. Which is nice.
My daughter was 6.5 yrs old when she started to learn to ride. She started inside over the winter. I have a fairly long room in my basement and set up an 18 foot long railing for her to use along the one wall. It really helped her to learn and get more comfortable on the uni.
I found that riding with her didn’t encourage her much, but playing games did. We had a small erasable white board that I would use to judge her riding. How far she could go without holding the rail, spinning around at the end of the railing. Going backwards. A little hop. Anything that she could do, I would rate her on a scale of 1 - 10. Of course she liked getting higher scores and I would tell her what she needed to do to get higher scores. That way, I wasn’t telling her what to do, but how to get more points. It worked very nicely for her, but was a little boring for me.
At our unicycle club (The Wonders) we have lots of little kids that have learned, ages 5 and up. OUr five year old was riding across the gym before she learned to ride a bicycle without training wheels! Cool. We set up two 8 foot tables, side by side, with a 2 foot gap between them. They ride back and forth between the tables and then try to ride away when they are confident. When they do start to ride a little, they love to ride between two unicyclists (steady riders are good here). This way, they are riding with you, not along side a person who is walking. It seems to give them more confidence and desire to learn on their own.
When any rider first starts covering some ground solo, we always try to make a big deal about it. Clapping, yelling to everyone about the ride they just did, high fives, the works. The adults like the same treatment!
My daughter is now 8.5 yrs old and is working on riding backwards on a 5 foot giraffe. Again, it’s boring for me, but walking along side her, riding along side her, etc, helps her to learn faster and practice more.
Hope some of this helps.
By the way, The Wonders unicycle club was started by myself partially because I wanted my daughter to have other kids to ride with. The club started in October 2004 as a class with 5 students. Now we average 15 - 20 for our weekly practice. She has lots of kids to ride with. I love it! Riding with others is great for learning and motivation.
Bill