This review is part of Natural Parents Network's Learning through Play Giveaway!
"Play is … the way that children make the world their own, exploring, making sense of all their new experiences, and recovering from life's upsets." {Larry Cohen, Playful Parenting} It is also well-established that children learn through play, which is why we've gathered some creative and fun products and websites to share with you and your children.
The Learning through Play Giveaway features nine amazing products for kids of all different ages and interests. I'm featuring one of those companies in my review below. When you get done reading my review, please click on over to the full Learning through Play giveaway post, where you'll find information on all of the goodies you can win. In total, we're giving away nine products worth $738!
Even if you don't win one of our fabulous prize packages, please consider spending part of your educational budget at one of these small businesses. By supporting small businesses and independent authors, you are helping families, boosting local economies, and supporting ethical practices of manufacturing, production and selling.
About Kinderfeets
Kinderfeets, a play on the Dutch words for children and bicycle, is a balance bike designed for young children to ease the transition gradually to a pedal-powered bicycle. Balance bikes are great for toddlers and preschoolers to teach balance naturally so that they can skip the training-wheel stage and go straight to riding a two-wheeled pedal bike when they're ready.Kids as young as two (or sometimes even younger) can start out walking the bike slowly, progress to longer strides, and eventually learn to balance as they glide for longer periods.
What makes Kinderfeets different from other balance bikes?
- Footpegs! If your kid gets fast enough to cruise, the footpegs allow a convenient resting place.
- Eco-friendly! They're made from (beautiful!) sustainable birch wood, from a replenishable source. The airless tires are completely biodegradable. The chalkboard finish paint is water-based, and the lacquer is non-toxic. And with Trees for the Future, Kinderfeets plants a tree for every bike they sell.
- Washable seat! You can throw the removable seat cover in with the rest of the laundry — perfect for kiddos who want to glide through puddles.
- No flats! The tires are sturdy rubber so don't need pumping or pampering. (You can optionally buy pneumatic tires in the store if an older child prefers.)
- Chalkboard finish! Kinderfeets encourages young creativity in all its colored options (not the natural) with a chalkboard finish that lets mini-artists decorate to suit that day's ride.
My experience
Alrik was so excited to get his very own bike in the mail! The Kinderfeets comes in a relatively compact box, and assembly was easy enough for this DIY reject to handle.Once put together, I was pleased with how light the Kinderfeets is — only 8 pounds. This is essential for us since we live upstairs, so biking means carrying equipment up and down stairs. Plus, of course, when a kid's too tired to ride, it can mean carrying a bike and child home! It also affects how easily the child can handle the bike, since it requires balance and holding the bike up — even our little guy manages well with this bike, and it feels like the weight is really well distributed.
I really love the natural birch wood and the bright green paint finish we chose. It makes it look very eco-conscious — which it is! It's just an all-around super cute bike.
One thing that was also very important to me is that the Kinderfeets seat adjusts to be very short or quite tall. It moves from 13 inches to 16 inches in height so is suitable for ages two through five. I haven't tried it out yet with our tall six-and-a-half-year-old, but I knew my shrimpy two-and-a-half-year-old doesn't fit on a lot of the other balance bikes we'd tried — he was too short to reach the ground, even on the lowest settings! With the Kinderfeets, it's no problem. With the seat at its lowest setting, Alrik comfortably reaches the ground and can steady the bike by himself.
Alrik was thrilled and began riding it around the apartment right away, then out into the hall — without pants at first. Ha!
It took him a few tries to get used to riding it for more than a few minutes at a time. At first, he tired out quickly. But after several days, we were able to take a nice long ride down to the beach, and he rode his bike all the way there and back.
By "riding," I mean that he sits on the seat and walks along slowly. Sloooowly. Probably slower than he walks.
I actually had to look online to see if that's normal, and I found out it is. I'd been primed too much by online videos of (older) kids zipping around gliding on their balance bikes that I was really hoping Alrik would just take off. But, no. So, for now, we walk. Slowly. And Mikko races ahead of us on his training-wheels bike, then waits impatiently for us to catch up.
Yup, that's right. Mikko refused — flat-out refused — to ride a balance bike when he was Alrik's age, and beyond. We tried. We showed him other kids riding theirs. No dice. He didn't like how "tippy" balance bikes are.
So — my advice, based on my vast experience of two children — is to be really patient. If your child finds a balance bike tippy and frustrating, give a lot of opportunities to play with it around the house or with a grownup holding it up (ouch, your back!). Allow for short jaunts outdoors, and expect to have to carry the bike some of the way. And if it never happens … it doesn't. Maybe your next kid will use it…
And, then, be patient about your kids actually running or gliding on the bike. Here's hoping that eventually happens for us!
For now, we're happy with our cute little Kinderfeets!
Connect with Kinderfeets
BUY IT!
You can buy your own Kinderfeets push bike at the Kinderfeets online store for $109 with free shipping. Plus, add in the necessary accessories: a bike helmet … and chalk! It's also available on Amazon for the same price.WIN IT!
Learning through Play Giveaway: Enter March 1 - 31, 2014!
$738 ARV; United States residents only
Enter below in our Rafflecopter widget - the main entry is simply to tell us which prize you'd prefer.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
For actions like following and subscribing, if you already follow or subscribe, just tell us with your entry.
Tweets must be a minimum of 24 hours apart — you can return to update your Rafflecopter entry without losing any of your previous entries. Your Tweets must be unprotected (publicly viewable).
You don’t have to do any of the bonus entries, but you do have to complete the first mandatory one.
Rafflecopter will pick the winner through Random.org after the contest closes, and a representative from NPN will send an email notification. Leave a valid email address as you enter so we can contact you if you win. If we can’t reach a winner, we’ll draw a new name at random.
The winner will have 48 hours to respond by email; otherwise, NPN will select another winner.
No purchase necessary. Entrants must be age 18 or older and be residents of the United States. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Winners agree to hold Natural Parents Network and the giveaway hosts harmless for any problem with receipt and/or use of prizes. Winner must contact the product seller or manufacturer directly if there is any problem with the prize or prize delivery. Winners are responsible for any taxes or customs fees related to prize winnings. NPN and the giveaway hosts reserve the right to publicize the winner's first name. Void where prohibited by law.
Contest closes March 31
at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.
Disclosure: Reviewers received sample products for review purposes,
and consideration was given to NPN for hosting the giveaway.
Amazon and other links may be affiliate links.
We try to seek out only products we think you would find relevant and useful
to your life as a natural parent. If we don't like a product, we won't be
recommending it to you. See our full disclosure policy here.
and consideration was given to NPN for hosting the giveaway.
Amazon and other links may be affiliate links.
We try to seek out only products we think you would find relevant and useful
to your life as a natural parent. If we don't like a product, we won't be
recommending it to you. See our full disclosure policy here.
1 comments:
I would love to win Prize #1. My daughter loves to play the piano. She teaches herself.
anjathisandthat at yahoo dot com
Post a Comment