Category: bicycling

Play on Pedals – preschool cycling

In a Glasgow project to get preschool children the opportunity to learn to ride a bike, advocates aimed to increase children’s physical activity in the city. Over the course of its first 2 years, Play on Pedals http://playonpedals.scot engaged more than 7000 preschool children using balance and pedal bikes. They worked by offering training to early years teachers and volunteers, who learned about cycling as well as bike maintenance. The project also ran a bike donation and redistribution program. The program is set to expand through Transport Scotland. Follow them on twitter: @playonpedals

play-on-pedals-the-bike-station-glasgow-thu-26-january-2017-photographer-andy-catlin-www-andycatlin-com-8722
Play on pedals at the Bike Station, Glasgow January 2017,
Photo Andy Catlin

In our book Bicycles, Airships, and Things that Go, we try to illustrate a lot of positive family cycling, with spreads featuring:

  • many different kinds of bikes
  • bike parking
  • bike bus

Great ways to expose the kids to bikes on the pavement and on the page.

p4-5-colorgrab children's book illustration of bicycle parking and urban garden

children's book illustration of bicycles

Bicycles, Airships and Things that Go, written by Bernie McAllister, illustrated by John Aardema

[Order the book on Amazon http://a.co/60EG7LD]

Our first reader reviews!

Recently I posted some of the color illustrations (by John Aardema) for our forthcoming book Bicycles, Airships and Things that Go. Here’s a new one..

over the desert
This week I’m happy to share some great reviews we’ve been getting from test readers. We’ve had four families read the book and here is what we’re hearing back:

“The girls loved the illustrations!  I don’t think they were even listening to the story line half the time b/c they were rapidly scanning the pages looking to find stuff”

“Chloe’s favorite page was the one with all the different types of bicycles; specifically the café bike.”

“There was a question about what the playground equipment was made of and I admit I didn’t know what it was.  Olivia (4 yrs) quickly answered it was made of wind turbines and even cited ‘wind turbines.’  I guaranteed she’s never heard or said those words together so clearly she retained it from earlier in the book, which was impressive.”

“I love the objective of raising awareness and socializing progressive topics around sustainability, and having a message oriented toward kids.”

“I could honestly envision a series of these books.”

“Overall, a fun book that I look forward to seeing in print”

“I read the book to the boys last night and they liked it”

“On most pages there was a ‘Who-oa! as in ‘How cool!’ and of course they never batted an eye at any of the technologies.. I liked the idea that reading this story taught them that such things are normal. Lots of good, cool, simple ideas”

“I would love to see a whole series of these books.”

Want your family to test read this book? Get in touch with AB (at) kidsfuturepress (dot) com

Would you ride this bike?

A few months back I wrote a post about 6 ways that bicycles help kids learn about sustainability. Innovation was one — and there were some crazy and wonderful pictures.

So when I saw this 3D printed mesh bicycle frame I just had to add it to the “catalogue” of bicycle innovations that are sure to get kids thinking about how we make (engineer) things. The green wheels are a nice touch too!

 

mesh-bike

This bike was created by Australian industrial designer James Novak and I learned about it on i.materialise, where Novak said,

“What I really wanted to achieve was something that takes full advantage of the benefits of 3D printers, especially the ability to create one-off, customizable pieces that may be lighter-weight and stronger than traditional frames through the use of complex lattice structures. More than anything, I’d like my work to be an example of what we should be 3D Printing.”
From a sustainability angle, lighter weight makes bicycling more accessible and I can see this mesh design having implications for folding or other “portable bikes” that you might take on the train and such.
So what do you think? Would you ride it? How about the kids you know?