The family..

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SouthEast, PA, United States
This Blog is all about me and my life as a mom of a beautiful 9 year old and my dear husband who entertains me as much as my girl does.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

WFMW - Ask for help issue..

Today's WFMW is a backwards day and I have been looking forward to this. I actually have 2 issues so please offer all of the advice you can.

1.) My first question has to do with play-doh. How can I get ground in, dried up play-doh out of my carpet? It seems that when my neighbor's daughter was over to play she didn't think that the table was so good for play-doh since the floor is so much easier to reach. Anyway - since it's happened I've just been placing the play tent over that spot when we have company. I would like to remove it though without removing the whole carpet...any ideas?

2.) My second dilemma is how do you teach a child to ride a bike. My sweetpea is 5 now and all of her friends on our street can ride without training wheels. In addition, she is just too heavy for training wheels to balance her effectively anyway. We have spent several sessions of me running next to her holding the back of the seat while she cries hysterically because she wants to do it but she is terrified of falling and we aren't getting anywhere that way. This is not a pretty scene for either of us. I need help and fast or I might be hanging from my balcony by the end of the week. So what worked for you? All ideas are appreciated and will be tried!

7 comments:

Meg M. said...

With the play doh, i would treat it like bubble gum. Freeze it with an ice cube and when it's at it's coldest, scrape it with a butter knife. Most, if not all, should come up. Or even just try scraping it withOUT the ice. It should be pretty hard after a few days, for sure.

With the bike? Well, i can't say we were much more successful on our end. SmartyPants didn't learn to ride on two wheels until she was 8. She was too afraid and neither Wayne nor i had the patience. Eventually, she wanted to ride with the other kids and they helped her learn how to do it.
WiseGuy has no desire to take of his training wheels and he is 6...i'm not going to make him. When he's ready he'll ask.
Wish i could be of more help in that dept, but i could use some help myself ;)

Becka said...

For the bike: Find a very grassy hill. Kids have problems getting enough momentum to keep them balanced. A slight incline will help with that. The friction of the grass helps to keep the bike upright, and the softness helps with the falls that ARE going to happen. It took three rides (and falls) down our hill before my son figured it out. He continued to ride on the grass for a few weeks before he moved onto a harder surface.

Nikki said...

I'm having the same issue with bike riding with my 5 year old. So, I'm glad you asked. Now I'll have to check back for more suggestions.

About the Play-doh, I just looked it up on their site under FAQ's. Here's the link.

Anonymous said...

My son used to grind play doh into the carpet regularly. Spray with warm water, let sit a few minutes and then use the edge of a credit card or some such to gently scrape away what's gotten softened up. Repeat til gone. Amazingly, it doesn't stain, but it's like cement once it's dry.

Rachel said...

My son, 4 1/2, just learned to ride without training wheels. We held the seat and let him go when he got fast enough. He kept working on it because he wanted to ride. He mostly taught himself...so I guess I'm not that much help.

Anonymous said...

the Germans have something called a Laufrad, literally, "walking bike" -- it's a bike without pedals, so that the kid learns balancing, which is the key thing. A two-wheeled scooter works well, too. Maybe you can find this online?

Totallyscrappy said...

I just bought bigger, tougher, more expensive training wheels. ;)
But I'm interested in what everyone else does to teach bike riding!