How would you explain bike pedalling to a 2 year old?

[LissyGlitter]

She has one of those trikes that turn into a bike (fisher price I think) but can't understand pedalling, she just sits on it, with her feet on the pedals, and rocks back and forth! She is 2.8, and generally pretty normal development wise.

Am I asking too much of her? Or is there some trick to getting her to understand? I am too pregnant to be bending down pushing her, and too skint to buy one with a pushing handle!

You could sit her on a chair opposite you and "bicycle" her feet so she gets the "round and round" idea.

Or put odd socks on and tell her to "push with the red foot, push with the blue foot, push with the red foot" ad nauseum.

But she is probably a bit little and will work it out herself eventually. I'm sure mine were older than that when they worked it out - can't really remember dd, I know ds1 was 4 though. He had a balance bike with no pedals before that.

It also quite hard to get started - sometimes if you give them a push, the motion makes the wheels move which makes the pedals move iyswim, and then they realise.