Now that the good weather starts, it's a good time to encourage children who use the bicycle more, and not only as a form of entertainment, but also as a form of exercise and even as a means of transportation.
As in all aspects of parenting, there is no better lesson than the example, so I encourage you to leave the whole family by bike.
I am a lover of family bike rides, I assure you that you can share very special moments. It is a perfect plan for the weekend, you can even take a basket and have an outdoor picnic in the field or in the park with the children.
The first thing you have to do is equate. To start, of course you need bikes, a child seat to carry behind if you have a small baby, and helmets for everyone.
Already if you become amateurs, you can gradually expand the equipment, but the good thing is that with a bike and a helmet it is enough to start enjoying.
Riding a bike is moving, activating, provides a sense of well-being and, above all, freedom. If you have the opportunity, encourage the children to move around the neighborhood by bicycle, go to school if possible, to buy bread or any short route they can take care of you.
I am lucky to live near my daughters' school, where they have room to leave bicycles, so as long as it does not rain and it is not too cold, they go to school by bike. That little trip fills them with energy and vitality for the rest of the day.
There are cities very well prepared for the bike, others not so much, but if more people get on the bike they will surely become more and more "friendly bike", so I encourage the whole family to ride more by bike.
World bicycle Day
It is no accident that today I talk about the bicycle. April 19 commemorates the World bicycle Day, but not because a day like today was invented or to commemorate the first official bicycle trip, but the story is much more unusual.
A day like today of the year 1943, Albert Hofmann took the first intentional dose of LSD and since he could not return home alone because of the effect it had caused, he asked his secretary to take him. Motor vehicles were not allowed in Switzerland at that time because of the war, the most popular means of transport was the bicycle.
The bike trip, when coming into contact with sunlight and nature, caused him psychedelic hallucinations that he describes as follows:
"Little by little I began to enjoy an unprecedented series of colors and shapes playing persistently behind my closed eyes. Fantastic images arose, alternating, varying, opening and closing in circles, exploding in fountains, rearranging and hybridizing in a constant flow."
Curious, right? Beyond the ephemeris and the relationship with LSD, I think the bike is much more than pedaling and exercise. If the bug bites you it can even become A lifestyle.
Photos | OCParks_CA and Clearly Ambiguous on Flickr More information | Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports
