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@thelawnet
TBH I'd rather not cycle with them. They sit on my bike, we very happily cover 1000 miles or so per year that way.
I am opposed to cycle helmets, but it's a difficult position to hold because if you have any kind of minor accident they will ask 'why wasn't he wearing a helmet', no matter how irrelevant it might be to the cut knee. He's at a private prep school, so they are all goody-two-shoes ten-year olds, and quite a few say 'where's your helmet'.
My wife is a pavement cyclist. I don't like this. But realistically my daughter is going to cycle at 6mph max, and we can't go on any but the quietest of cul-de-sacs at that speed.
My son has Aspergers and not great at awareness and stuff like that. He has been told before not to go off in front, but obviously not really drilled in well enough. We had a good go at him and said that next time he might not be so lucky.
I just came back from parent's evening, and the woman who hit him was there.
I get the impression that she feels that she might bear some responsibility and seemed quite contrite. I spoke to my son earlier and it seems that he was hit from the side. She said something about coming out 'very slowly' and there being hedges blocking the view. The bike was in the road, so I am not sure what kind of evasive action was taken.
Ultimately it would be better to cycle in the road, and I'd be cycling close to the centre line and he to my left, and visibility would have been good, but I've not seen my five-year-olds on the road. The odd one or two on the pavement with Dad cycling in the gutter alongside sometimes.
I've cycled home with him on the road a few times, I try to drill it to him - we're turning right here, keep to the right of the lane, remember to change your gears down, but he doesn't have his own road sense to really think and respond to things like a car noise behind (shoulder check), or sometimes when I say 'move over' he can take it too literally and start cycling on the verge or something. Not fun for me, at all.