Encouraging my 6yo to learn

[Strawberriesandcream21]

Can anyone offer tips on encouraging my 6yo to learn skills?

Academically she is so so bright, top of all her classes. She is also very small and struggles with more physical things.

She's desperate to do certain things but has no patience to learn. All her friends ride bikes without stabilizers and dd wants to to but she will not put in any time or effort to learn. She's the same with handstands and cartwheels. She just expects to be able to do it. Most of her friends are swimming confidently now to and dd wants to swim but doesn't want lessons.

I'm so positive and will happily spend time with her to do these things but she just gets herself worked up, cross and then throws a tantrum and gives up for the day.

I should add she's under no pressure, I'm not forcing her to do anything, these are things she wants to do.

It sounds as if your daughter would do better learning from others, not from you. My daughter was reluctant to swim but I enrolled her in classes and once the teacher said move away from the edge, she did so. I don’t think handstands and cartwheels are that important. I could never do either and had a successful academic career. My DH never inquired about these skills either. If she really wanted to learn to ride a bike she would. Perhaps you could send her to stay with a relative who could pretend to be surprised and say ‘would you like me to teach you?’ That’s how my daughter learnt to use tampax - she wouldn’t discuss them with me.

Thanks for the reply. I might try that re the bike. Dh has tried but I might ask my FIL

Handstands and cartwheels aren't particularly important in life I know that but dd wants to keep up with her pals and be able to do them. Her academic skills are way beyond her age but she wants to be able to do the fun/cool physical things like her friends.

Has she got a balance bike? Forget the stabilisers, it’s not a good way to learn. You can take the peddles off the bike and keep the saddle low until she gets the feeling of gliding and what it’s like the be balanced. Maybe try a little bit each weekend. When she’s quite speedy you put the pedals back on and she should get it quite quickly. You could also discuss with her - looo is this really something you want to do I’ll put the time in if you will, 15 mins each weekend day but there will be no tantrums or we’ll stop.
I do know what you mean by the way, my son has swimming lessons, still can’t swim but insists he can and doesn’t need lessons. Drives me mad. He’s 6 too!

Thank you for the reply. I'll ask Dh to have a look at her bike a d see if we can remove the pedals and stabilizers

If she's good at something she'll happily practice for hours and continue to make small improvements but getting over the first hurdle of something physical is hard work with her

Get her to watch the episode of Bluey called Bike. It is Bluey learning to be patient and keep trying so she can learn to ride, as she expects to get it right away. She watches all the other kids in the park have their own challenges with things they're trying to do, they get frustrated and look like they're going to give up - but then they keep trying and they figure it out. Perfectly matches your issue!