Thoughts on a Balance Bike Daycare?

[Max]

I don't offer a lot of bikes. I have two of the small 3 wheeler bikes that sit really low. My dcks are out of my care by 4.5 years old at the latest.

I just wouldn't want ds on a track with other kids, where so much could go wrong. I would allow it if I were there supervising, though. I'm just...protective. With me, ds does all types of things. Bikes, skiing, snowmobiling, etc. With another adult...no.

In my daycare experience, kids can be very misbehaved. I have strict rules to keep everyone in place and safe. This just wouldn't work for me as a provider. I can't have an infant in one arm, and be chasing little Johnny down because he sideswiped little Ben with a bike on purpose.

Again, I'm overprotective.

Maybe track was a bit of an overstatement? It would be more like a glorified dirt path. Lol. I think a path with one direction of travel would be safer than kids riding (on bikes or trikes or otherwise) on a driveway or other surface in all directions. I guess I just disagree with the idea that so much more could go wrong. Not that I think playing on a driveway is necessarily unsafe or anything. Just my 2 cents

[Max]

Maybe I'm reading the OP'S post wrong, but she is talking about needing helmets and riding gear for what she has planned. To me, bikes that require helmets at daycare? Riding gloves? This doesn't sound like simple small bikes to me.

My area is very woodsy, but I have a half acre fenced for the kiddos with no trees. A very small portion of that is paved. The draws to my outdoor area is the enormous sandbox, castles and sliding toys.

When daycare kids ride bikes and cars at my home, they all want to play bumper cars. Someone always get hurt if I'm not standing near them.

Lol Striders/balance bikes really are simple bikes nothing crazy. Riding gloves and helmets are just for protection. We are big on always having proper gear (comes from riding MX, I realize little kids on small bikes don't necessarily NEED gloves).

[organicdclady]

We are also a moto family. My son has been riding since he was 3 and started racing at 4.
All the little ones at the track have the no peddle bikes, they're fun to watch.
I think it's a great idea, and could see families being exited about it. I do feel as though you would have to offer more than just bikes and a track though. I mean, you're not going to have the kids on the track for 6 hours a day. What else are you offering?
This will have an impact on your home owners insurance, there is no way around it.
If you're renting, the home owners are probably going to have a problem with it.
I would think to start off, this should be a "bonus" to your program and not be the star.
I do hope you share what comes of your start up!

[mommyneedsadayoff]

Maybe I'm reading the OP'S post wrong, but she is talking about needing helmets and riding gear for what she has planned. To me, bikes that require helmets at daycare? Riding gloves? This doesn't sound like simple small bikes to me.

My area is very woodsy, but I have a half acre fenced for the kiddos with no trees. A very small portion of that is paved. The draws to my outdoor area is the enormous sandbox, castles and sliding toys.

When daycare kids ride bikes and cars at my home, they all want to play bumper cars. Someone always get hurt if I'm not standing near them.

The strider bikes are basically a small bike with no peddles. They go as fast as their little feet can go I am not sure helmets are required for them, but I would think that any thing they ride on where they could fall off may have that rule. It is really not a big deal or anymore dangerous than other ride on toys. As with anything, supervision is necessary and kids who go against the grain (the bumper car kids) have to be dealt with just as any situation.

I guess I took the OP's post as being very involved with outdoor and physical play. Riding bikes on a track would have been so fun as a kid. We didn't have a track when I was little, but we made our own on our farm and it was great!

[nanglgrl]

The problems I could see are:
1. Waivers won't protect you if a child gets hurt.
2. Some states require that children have their own helmet of that each helmet goes through a sanitation process before/after use if it's shared. Daycare centers in my area have gotten rid of all trikes, bikes etc. for this reason and because of a fall surfacing rule.
3. On the top of most parents list for daycare is safety (followed closely by price and for some it's price then safety). Then comes environment, basically what kind of learning environment most matches their parenting..outdoors..Montessori..preschool like..home like. Other things come after that but again they are related to safety..organic food...cloth diapering..breast feeding friendly.
Even the parents I know who ride bikes quite a bit (I'm in Cedar Falls, Iowa..tons of great bike trails and RAGBRAI) aren't pushing for their child to ride a bike at daycare.
4. Insurance coverage
5. Safety. It's hard to keep an eye on the bike riders and the ones that aren't riding bikes at the same time.
6. If you're interested in QRS this could be seen as a falling hazard and need appropriate surfacing.

On another note, I love balance bikes! My children learned so quickly after using a balance bike. I intended to keep it for my daycare but quickly learned that it just didn't work. I had more safety concerns for my daycare children and they weren't as willing to take part in the risky behavior of taking their feet off the ground. I ended up giving it to a neighbor.

[Max]

Organic - I agree that it should be more of a bonus feature than the star. We own our home so no worries there thankfully. I would definitely offer more to make my program stand out, but the balance bikes would probably be the most unique aspect I suppose.

Nanglgrl- BC linked an article to waivers and insurance that covered those areas, it's really good to know waivers won't hold up! I read another thread on here for helmets so I planned to sanitize and have them assigned. Sanitized when it switches to another child for whatever reason. For safety, I think it would be just as safe, if not safer, than the typical mobile play kids do on driveways, patios, etc.. But a good point to keep in mind when talking to parents about it what is QRS?

[Blackcat31]

what is QRS?

Quality Rating & Improvement System (QRIS) is a method to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care & education and after-school settings.

In MN it's Parent Aware

http://parentaware.org/

[midaycare]

Quality Rating & Improvement System (QRIS) is a method to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality in early care & education and after-school settings.

In MN it's Parent Aware

http://parentaware.org/

A.K.A. the thorn in my rear end::

OP, do a search on here sometime for QRIS. Interesting reading.

[midaycare]

Okay, I think I understand bikes now.

As a parent, it wouldn't be an advantage or disadvantage then. I don't think I would consider it in my decision to choose a daycare for ds. But if you had a great outdoor area, and that was one of the options, I could get excited about outdoor time for ds.

I don't know if it's enough to pull parents in, but if you had a cool outdoor play program, I would love that.

[Unregistered]

What about the winter time?

[daycare]

first off I am a moto family too....My kids were raised on the MX track....Their dad was a professional rider in Europe back in the late 80s.....yeah I am old...

I am so jealous you have this space, I would die for space that big. I live in the SF Bay area, so imagine what space I have..

As far as using this as your main appeal for your DC, I honestly don't think too many parents will sign up for this.

Being that my ex and I taught our children to ride two wheels only at age 2, I know how hard it was to keep them safe and this was before they got their dirt bikes.

I can't imagine having multiple children all at one time that I would need to help them to learn to ride one of these. The thought of that scares the life out of me. I am scared for you.

I think that it would be something that children who can already ride and prove that they can could use at some part of the day.

Kind of like scissors... Most of my DCks can't use them. They have to prove to me first that they can follow the safety rules of scissors and only cut on paper before I let them have them. Once they show me and prove to me that they can do it safely, they are allowed to join in on activities/crafts that involves scissors.....

if you can't pass my scissor test and prove you can use them safely without hurting yourself or others, you can't use them.

not sure that was the best comparison, but it was all that I could think of.

anyways, I would love to use it personally for my family, not too sure you would be able to watch a child new to bikes on one and still be able to offer enough supervision AND meet the needs of the rest of your children in your care.

just out of curiosity, have you ever worked in group care before with mixed ages?

[jenboo]

first off I am a moto family too....My kids were raised on the MX track....Their dad was a professional rider in Europe back in the late 80s.....yeah I am old...

I am so jealous you have this space, I would die for space that big. I live in the SF Bay area, so imagine what space I have..

As far as using this as your main appeal for your DC, I honestly don't think too many parents will sign up for this.

Being that my ex and I taught our children to ride two wheels only at age 2, I know how hard it was to keep them safe and this was before they got their dirt bikes.

I can't imagine having multiple children all at one time that I would need to help them to learn to ride one of these. The thought of that scares the life out of me. I am scared for you.

I think that it would be something that children who can already ride and prove that they can could use at some part of the day.

Kind of like scissors... Most of my DCks can't use them. They have to prove to me first that they can follow the safety rules of scissors and only cut on paper before I let them have them. Once they show me and prove to me that they can do it safely, they are allowed to join in on activities/crafts that involves scissors.....

if you can't pass my scissor test and prove you can use them safely without hurting yourself or others, you can't use them.

not sure that was the best comparison, but it was all that I could think of.

anyways, I would love to use it personally for my family, not too sure you would be able to watch a child new to bikes on one and still be able to offer enough supervision AND meet the needs of the rest of your children in your care.

just out of curiosity, have you ever worked in group care before with mixed ages?

Did you use a balance bike when your kids were little? There isn't any teaching with a balance bike. It's a tiny bike low to the ground that they push with their feet.

I honestly don't see much difference between having a balance bike and other ride on toys. I also don't see this being an issue with insurance as others have mentioned. My insurance asked me if i had climbers, but didn't ask about riding toys.

I think helmets are great to have as a safety precaution for any riding toys. I think the op mentioned gloves which in this case i think would be used as a "cool" factor vs safety since little kids riding a balance bike in the dirt don't need gloves.

I have thought of making a bike path in my backyard but i don't want to kill the grass :: i think bike paths are great since all the kids are going in the same direction vs playing bumper cars.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

Honestly, I can't see any of my preschoolers being interested in riding a balance bike for more than 15-20 minutes max. a day. I don't think I would make it my selling point. Just a nice little activity to do during our outside time.

[daycare]

Did you use a balance bike when your kids were little? There isn't any teaching with a balance bike. It's a tiny bike low to the ground that they push with their feet.

I honestly don't see much difference between having a balance bike and other ride on toys. I also don't see this being an issue with insurance as others have mentioned. My insurance asked me if i had climbers, but didn't ask about riding toys.

I think helmets are great to have as a safety precaution for any riding toys. I think the op mentioned gloves which in this case i think would be used as a "cool" factor vs safety since little kids riding a balance bike in the dirt don't need gloves.

I have thought of making a bike path in my backyard but i don't want to kill the grass :: i think bike paths are great since all the kids are going in the same direction vs playing bumper cars.

I don't know what a balance bike is...

my kids are 19-21, I have a 9 yr old too, but he always rode on 2 wheels only too...

I guess I should go and see what a balance bike is...

[jenboo]

I don't know what a balance bike is...

my kids are 19-21, I have a 9 yr old too, but he always rode on 2 wheels only too...

I guess I should go and see what a balance bike is...

It's a tiny little bike without pedals that kids as young as 18-24 months can easily fit on. They push with their feet like typical riding toys.. :: definitely not scary.