Starting little kids on unis

General
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My kids learned just shy of their next birthdays. They were 7, 6, and 7 when they learned, but in all three cases, they’d been working at the basics (riding a 12" uni with me holding the back of their seat) for several years before they really got the hang of it. And all three learned on a porch (tho not the same porch).

The elder two both learned to unicycle before they could bike. We didn’t live in a good biking area (hence the porch), and they didn’t have much interest in bikes at the time.

My son, now nearly 14, is excited that he’s getting a Coker for his birthday.

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Best birthday present ever!

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+1

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You’ll have to get a longneck KH 20, that way she’d be to short to commandeer it.

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@unimyra, that’s a great video – made me smile to watch it.

@David, your son is one lucky guy!

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Both of my kids made good progress at Crawley juggling convention over the weekend.

My 11yo daughter has been riding for about 2½ years, but has been stuck in a rut where she could quite happily ride around a hall, but wasn’t comfortable letting go of me outside. Well, now she is. The Hawth road is ideal for unicycle practice. It didn’t take long to persuade her to let go - she then rode 7 laps of the roundabout without a single dismount, before riding off round the car parks.

My 9yo son has been riding for nearly as long, but with much less enthusiasm. Although he’s been able to ride solo since before his 7th birthday, he’s lacked the confidence to do so and has insisted on leaning on me far too heavily to make much progress. On Saturday, though, he decided that he was happy to ride in the carpeted foyer of the theatre (expecting a softer landing than on the tarmac outside). By Sunday he was riding solo outside and, on one occasion, comfortably rode about 20m.

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My youngest daughter (7 years old) has been practicing unicycling for the past weeks, making slow but steady progress. She is very persistent and eager to learn. Today she reached the first milestone, which is riding from our driveway to the neighbours. :slight_smile:

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There was something WRONG with that video. I’ll fix it later.

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This one works:

My youngest daughter (7 years old) has been practicing unicycling for the past weeks, making slow but steady progress. She is very persistent and eager to learn. Today she reached the first milestone, which is riding from our driveway to the neighbours.

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Good for her! I love to see the excitement.

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with a daughter that just turned three I always get eager to get a small uni and have it available in case she wants to learn. However I have this strong feeling that the 12" might be too small, and that I should probably should wait until she is tall enough for a 16". Does anyone have experiences with 12" unis?

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I bought a 12" for my oldest daughter when she was 5, but she didn’t learn until she was 8 on a 16". I believe it is easier to learn on a 16" because it rolls much better, but age is more important than wheelsize. In my experience 7-8 is a good age for learning.

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My three kids dabbled with an 18" uni wheel at age 7. By age 8, two of them had graduated to 20" wheels. The youngest is still 7, and still working on the 18". The older two found the bigger wheel to be instantly more stable, so I’d suggest using the biggest wheel they can fit on. My oldest, currently 10 years old, rides a 24" muni with a big knobby tire comfortably. Go big!

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it looks like I need to be a bit patient with pushing the uni then. Luckily there are lots of other things to do with young kids.

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I don’t have kids myself, but I have been training lots of Circus/unicycling groups for kids. What really is the most important, is the selfmotivated will to practice.

My brother learned to ride at 5yo, on a 16 inch, but he really wanted it, so he practiced a lot. I learned to ride at 7yo ( as soon as i would fit on a 20", and I just could not wait to grow enough to be able to start), needless to say, I was really motivated and practiced lots, all completely self initiated.

On the other side of the spectrum, whenever I give a unicycle workshop over multiple days (usually about 4 days, 5 hours each), there are usually one or two kids that are just there because their parents wanted them to, and they usually learn extremely slow. I usually manage to get most kids from non riding to at least riding across the gym (about 40m/120ft) on their own, exception are the ones that are not motivated, and some rare cases of kids that need a bit more practice on their balance/motoric abilities.

In my experience it is important to give kids enough variety and breaks in order to not overload them, the first step is always practicing to ride with something to hold on to on both sides, in between a wall and some garden benches for example. Then move on to only holding on to one side (only a wall), with assistance of someone (first on foot, then on a unicycle when they need less assistance) riding away from a secure starting point (some lines on the ground are a great thing to show progress) and mix it up between those in order to not become to boring.

But yeah, forcing a kid to learn/pushing it on them to much is usually pretty unsuccessful, and not fun for both the kid and you.

As for wheelsizes: I have never seen anyone learn on a 12", but lots of kids learn on a 16". I also usually advise parents not to have their kid switch from 16" to 20" as soon as they fit, and instead wait until they have grown a bit more, otherwise 20" is just proportionally a huge wheel, and 16 inch a much more manageable size. (A 6 yo on a 20inch often looks like an adult on a 36")

I agree. Exceptions proof the norm, but I’d say 90% of kids that age possess the necessary abilities and especially important: the necessary endurance to keep on practicing.

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Same here. Learning on a 16" & moving up to a shortened 20" as soon as they’re comfortable. It’s an instant stability increase and confidence boost.

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finnspin: Well said. You obviously have a lot of experience teaching kids to ride.

I have written about my oldest daughter (now 10 years old) earlier in this thread. She doesn’t ride much anymore, but I talked her into trying a 29’er with a sawed off frame. She got on and rode right off. (Riding photo by Tim Lovasen)

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I’ll chime in here, as a child learner.

In circus I had learn to unicycle to be part of the advanced group. So I started learning in about 4th grade. I still sucked up until 6th grade, where I could finally actually ride. By the end of 7th, I could do hops and idle and such. At 15 I could do small trails stuff. Over a christmas break I built a trails wheel, I was riding a lot, could do other flat tricks, but still wasn’t very good. I was a pretty strong rider, one of the better in my circus, but I was limited in my tricks, relative to people like Eli Brill. Then I stopped riding that often, and progress pretty much flatlined.

Still into trails and flat, but getting into muni a bit more, just haven’t got the unicycle yet.

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My 7 1/2 years old has been riding quite a bit this summer, and she is getting better all the time. Great fun to watch.

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If she keeps her head up and eyes straight she will succeed quickly