This summer we decided to have our three year old attend bike camp. We decided on a bike camp because there was a Pedalheads camp called Trikes and Trainers that was described as being for 3 year olds. It was meant to teach them how to steer, safety, what stop signs mean, what red, yellow and green lights mean, and what the parts of their bikes are called, amongst other things.
I had heard about Pedalheads before from parents in the neighborhood. A couple of boys we knew had to do the camp twice in order to learn how to ride their bike. Another young girl learned how to ride her bike in a week camp without training wheels, but still had tons of fear of riding her bike and quickly unlearned how to ride a bike.
I figured that I was only hoping for our daughter to become more comfortable on her bike. We brought her trike and her bike with training wheels to camp for all five days. She basically would only ride her trike which we were okay with. However, we were not okay with the lack of encouragement from her Pedalheads instructor. I think the instructor asked her a total of 5 times if she wanted to try her other bike and there was no encouragement or interaction you would expect with a 3 year old.
I guess it is obvious from my tone already that we were not pleased with the Pedalheads experience. I will summarize everything quickly starting with the Pros….
PROS
*Our 3 year old was able to steer her tricycle better after going to the Pedalheads week long camp.
CONS
*The instructor we had was horrible. She put five pylons up every class and for an hour expected the 3 year olds to be entertained enough with circling around them. All the time the other kids in the other classes were playing games, riding through a sprinkler and other fund activities.
*One day the instructor did not even acknowledge our daughter when she arrived.
*The Supervisor yelled across the lot so all classes could hear, you jerk to another instructor which is not appropriate.
*The Supervisor was more interested in disturbing the instructors while they were teaching their classes with chasing them to pour water over their heads.
*My daughter was never taught what a stop signs was or what a red, yellow or green light means. She only knows what they mean because we taught her their meanings.
*We had to follow our daughter as she pedaled around the 5 cones and try to encourage her to go in and out of them. The Instructor was often distracted or seemed like she just could not bother.
*The only time the kids started to play a catch up to each other game was when we encouraged them too.
I did complain to the company and was offered another week of camp for free. I asked my 3 year old if she wanted to go again and she said no, that it was not fun. She finally agreed to try the camp again if she had a different instructor. So another week of Pedalheads camp was arranged with a different instructor.
I had to drag my daughter to the first class of the free week asking her to just try it and see if it is more fun. Honestly, the new instructor seemed amazing. She taught our daughter more in one hour than what she had done in the entire previous week of camp. However, the damage was done from the first experience and my daughter just would not go back for any of the other days for the free week of camp. The main problem this time was that they put our daughter in a camp with just her and the instructor. No other kids, no other friends to play and ride with. What fun is that for a 3 year old?
Will I ever try Pedalheads again? No, I think it was a waste of money.
My suggestions to the company would be as follows:
*focus on getting high quality instructors
*get better more mature supervisors
*have a curriculum that is developed and instructors are to follow
*have instructors for the younger kids that have experience working and communicating with three year olds
I did receive good customer service from the company once they knew I was not impressed with the camp experience. It was nice of them to offer another week for free. However, it is ridiculous that they put our daughter in a camp with no other kids.
That is my personal take on Pedalheads. Research them yourself if you are thinking of putting your child into a camp. If you have had an experience with the Pedalheads program please leave your comments for other parents. Have you had a better experience then we did?
[recent posts]
My daughter (age almost 8) just finished a week of full day bike camp with Pedalheads. I didn’t witness any of it – just dropped off and picked up – but she LOVED it. In general she never loves daycamps, she just tolerates, but she loved this and came home exhausted every night.
They had an hour of bike related things in the morning and then 2.5hrs after lunch. Obviously not riding the whole time. They did various other things like beading, scavenger hunt, playground, a hike to a park etc..
I liked the adult : kid ratio was low. Didn’t love the price but it wasn’t out of line with other specialized camps.
She was in level 5 “Gearheads”. She is a more confident rider and most of all she is dying for me to take her out on the trails and she thinks trying to ride all the way up a hill is a fun thing to do.
Thanks for this posting. I am on the brink of our second go at Pedalheads. The first was a failure, if the goal is to teach the kids to ride without training wheels. My kids were younger then, 4 and 6, so maybe that was the problem?
I watched the lessons as you did. Much of the time they weren’t even learning to ride. They were playing in the park. Not sure if that was supposed to be a break for the kids or for the instructor?
Now my kids are almost 7 and 9 and still haven’t learned to ride. I wish you had more people commenting on their experiences so I could decide, but on the absence of evidence to the contrary, I’m leaning toward avoiding Pedalheads.
This was a great posting, i got alot out of it. I’d like to add your feed to my biker site at http://www.bikerunity.com but cannot find it, do you have one available? I’ll check back later for your reply. Thanks