15 First Bicycle story ideas, each one a book your child stars in: Wobbly wheels, a scraped knee, a ringing bell and the first time the hand on the seat lets go. Pick one, add a few details, and the illustrated book starts right away.
Every story is painted in a soft, hand-drawn watercolour look, with your child as the hero of the big day.
First BicycleEvery evening in the colony park, Papa runs behind the red cycle holding the seat while Your child pedals. Tonight, halfway round the fountain, Your child looks back, and Papa is far away, standing still, waving. Your child wobbles, wants to stop, then grips the handlebars and keeps pedalling to the end of the path. Papa runs up out of breath. 'You did that alone.'
Lesson: The hand on the seat was only there until you were ready
First BicycleThe training wheels have been on the blue cycle for a year, and the older children in the gali call it a baby cycle. Your child asks Dadaji to take them off, then falls twice in the first minute and asks for them back. Dadaji does not put them back. He sits on the step and says, 'Once more.' On the seventh try, Your child reaches the gate. The wheels go in the cupboard for good.
Lesson: Once more is how everything is learnt
First BicycleThe first real fall happens on the gravel behind the temple: a scraped knee, a bent bell, a lot of tears. Amma cleans it with antiseptic that stings and puts on a plaster with stars. Your child wants to never ride again. Then little brother Vivaan comes to look at the plaster, wide-eyed. Your child wipes the tears, says 'It is only a scratch,' and rides one slow round to prove it.
Lesson: Being brave is mostly what you do after the fall
First BicycleThe new cycle has a silver bell, and Your child rings it at everything: at crows, at the milkman, at the gate. Then, at the corner by the paan shop, an old man with a stick is crossing slowly and a scooter is coming fast behind. Your child rings the bell three times, hard. The scooter slows, the old man reaches the kerb, and he taps his stick twice as a thank you.
Lesson: A bell is not a toy when someone needs it
First BicycleNani needs bread and there is no one to send. Your child has never ridden past the gate alone. Nani gives twenty rupees and says, 'Left at the peepal, stop at the bakery, and ride back before the crows.' Your child rides slowly, feet ready to touch the ground, and comes back with a warm loaf in the basket and change in a fist. Nani puts the coins in the god shelf.
Lesson: The first trip alone is small only afterwards
First BicyclePapa bought a yellow helmet with the cycle, but none of the gali children wear helmets and they laugh at it. Your child takes it off at the corner every day. Then Rohan, the fastest rider, skids into the drain and bumps his head, not badly, but he cries. The next morning Your child rides out with the helmet on, chin strap tight. By the weekend, three more helmets appear in the gali.
Lesson: Do the safe thing first and others will follow
First BicycleYour child has no cycle yet, and Meera aunty next door lends her son's old green one for the summer, on one condition: return it exactly as it was. Your child rides it every day, oils the chain with Papa, and when the seat tears, spends pocket money on a new cover. When Meera aunty gets it back, she says it looks better than before, and tells Your child to keep it till Diwali.
Lesson: Look after what is lent and it stays lent
First BicycleThere is one cycle and two children. Every evening ends in a fight over who rides first, until Amma threatens to lock it up. Your child takes a chalk and draws a line on the park path: Didi rides to the line, Your child rides back. Then they try Didi pedalling with Your child on the carrier, shouting directions. It turns out one cycle rides better with two.
Lesson: Take turns and the turn comes faster
First BicycleThe back tyre goes flat far from home. Your child pushes the cycle to the puncture shop under the flyover, where Salim uncle sits with a tub of water and a tyre lever. He shows Your child how to find the hole by the bubbles, how to rough the rubber, how to press the patch. He charges ten rupees. Your child comes back the next day with a plate of Amma's halwa for him.
Lesson: Learn from the one who fixes things and say thank you properly
First BicycleThe first monsoon shower catches Your child on the way back from the tuition class. The road is a river, the brakes squeal and the wheels throw up brown fans of water. Your child gets off, walks the cycle through the deepest part, then rides the rest, laughing, soaked to the skin. At home Amma scolds, then wraps Your child in a towel and makes pakoras.
Lesson: Know when to ride and when to walk
First BicycleEvery time Your child cycles past the dhaba, a brown puppy comes tearing out, barking, and Your child pedals away terrified. Dadi says the puppy only wants to play. The next day Your child stops the cycle, gets off, and crouches. The puppy skids, sniffs, and licks Your child's hand. Now the puppy runs alongside the cycle every evening, ears flapping, all the way to the park.
Lesson: What chases you might only want to run beside you
First BicycleThe colony children announce a cycle race from the gate to the water tank. Your child is the newest rider and last at the start. Halfway, Anaya's chain comes off and she stops in tears. Every rider goes past. Your child stops, puts the chain back the way Salim uncle showed, and they ride to the finish together, last of all, holding hands over the handlebars. Everyone claps loudest for them.
Lesson: Coming last together beats coming first alone
First BicycleDadi says she never learnt to ride and it is too late now. Your child, who learnt only last month, does not agree. In the empty school ground on Sunday, Your child holds the seat of the big cycle and runs alongside, the way Papa did, shouting, 'Pedal, pedal, look ahead!' Dadi wobbles, laughs, falls into the grass, and gets up. By evening she rides one full circle.
Lesson: Once you learn something, you can give it away
First BicycleAt Nana's village, the cycle is the big black one with a rod across, far too tall for Your child. The cousins ride it kainchi style, one leg through the frame. Your child tries, falls, tries again, and finally wobbles down the mud path to the well with a pot on the carrier. The water sloshes out, but Nani takes the half-full pot as if it were gold.
Lesson: A tall cycle is only tall until you find your own way onto it
First BicycleYour child has grown, and the small red cycle now sits in the corner with flat tyres. Papa says a new one is coming for the birthday. The watchman's son, Bittu, stands at the gate every evening watching the children ride. Your child pumps the tyres, polishes the bell, and wheels the red cycle to Bittu. His face when he rings the bell is better than any new cycle.
Lesson: Something you have outgrown can be someone's first