How do I teach him to balance on a balance bike?

[LapinDeBois]

DS2 (aged two and a half) has just been given a balance bike. We've taken it out a couple of times, and although he loves toddling around with it, he's basically just walking along with it between his legs, rather than actually sitting on the seat and propelling himself. I've tried to tell him to sit his bottom down on the seat, but then he just sits there looking confused. Will he just work it out for himself, or do I need to try harder to explain it to him ?

DS (2) got one for his birthday and has had one proper outing on it. He walked astride it for most of the 40 min walk. Last 5 mins he perched on the edge of the seat and was going much faster.

I'd just leave him to it.

The point of them is that the DC gradually progress from walking all the way through to taking it to the top of a hill & pushing off weeeeeee

Leave him to it

He will work it out for himself! With mine I'd take them out for short bursts, say 10 min at a time on it and do this every day if possible and it meant they had fun, didn't get frustrated and picked it up properly after about a week. With DS3 I had a revelation and put one of those backpacks with a handle/strap (like reigns) and held that to help him balance and give him a bit of speed without having to bend over. He felt safe to go faster and learnt really quickly like that.

Ok, sounds like I need to butt out - thanks all! I think because DS1 is a rather uncoordinated child and has really struggled with things like bikes, I feel the impulse to interfere, even though DS2 is generally much more capable. (I wish we'd had a balance bike for DS1. He's 5 now, and we just can't get him to try riding without stabilisers. Do you think a few goes on a balance bike might help him??)

For DS1 you try taking off the pedals, effectively making his big bike into a balance bike. Then he'll still feel like a big boy on his big bike but will be able to get the balance bit going.
Both my DSs took a good couple of weeks to a month to get going on the balance bike but ended up whizzing about.
DS1 is now 4.5 years and has just begun riding his big bike on his own. We didn't use the stabilisers but there was quite a long period of running next to him!

Hi Lapin, my ds who is 4 struggled with his balance bike and eventually told me he wanted a bike with peddles. He is similar to your DS1 and a bit uncoordinated, I think the balance bike was too difficult for him. Not sure when he will be able to ride his bike without the stabilisers.

Ok, that's quite interesting, thanks. It hadn't occurred to me to try taking the pedals off. If it's relatively easy to do then it's probably worth a try.