Fisher-Price Barbie Grow With Me 1,2,3 Roller Skates

These are the perfect skates for a young child just starting to skate. They are simple to adjust, and three different wheel settings help the child gain confidence and succeed.

My daughter had been begging me for a pair of roller skates but at four years of age I was very hesitant to put her on wheels. I saw these and thought that I would try them since they had four wheels and three learn-to-skate stages. They are absolutely great in that they adjust from shoe size 6 to 12 and your child can easily strap them on over their tennis shoes with the velcro straps. The length adjusts easily on the bottom by pressing two small plastic knobs together to lenthen or shorten the skates. The most impressive and useful feature is the adjustable sliding knob on the sides of the skates that adjusts from numbers one to three. This allows your child to progress at their own pace. The first stage locks the wheels so your child can skate-walk and gain balance and confidence. My daughter progressed to the second stage after walking around on our pavement for about an hour. The second stage allows your child to roll forward only. This is where I had to step in at times and hold my daughter's hand to make sure she was getting the hang of it but she quickly wanted to go it alone. It took a couple of days before my daughter was ready to try the third stage which allowed her to roll forward and back. She tried this third stage and felt it was too much for her as of yet so we were able to easily adjust back to the second stage for more practice. I feel that you can not go wrong with these skates for little girls due to their adjustability.

When my son was 2 1/2. I bought him real nice kid skates and he was afraid for a certain period because those skates were actually too good... :-/ I eye-balled these skates before buying the real nice ones and thought they would just be junk and didn't want to be cheap. FOOLISHNESS!!!

I now have a daughter who is 16 months old. Our whole family goes skating so I knew to buy these, this time! I was sold on the in-line version of Grow With Me 1,2,3 BUT I checked around and checked around and saw the reviews were consistently better for the quad style!?! I even went to a major toy dealer and had them check and they reported the same thing!?! The in-line Barbie version looked so much better and sturdier but folks were reporting problems getting foot in and out... So against my better judgment, I went with these.

So far, my daughter loves them! They are far sturdier than they appeared! My daughter's 16 month old feet are almost too small, ALMOST... I'm very happy I made this decision. She feels like part of the family because we all have quads. I don't let her on the rink floor yet, but soon... She walks with all wheels locked. Only the front two lock and semi-lock. Forward never locks 100% on all the skates on the rack, but it is definitely good enough. I have FULL confidence in that! I had to throw that in since at least one reviewer complained about that. They are pretty easy to adjust, but is easiest with the foot out of the skate. This is just a trainer skate. Once she can stand and all wheels are fully released, I'm giving these to a friend's daughter and buying the real good skates! She already has more confidence than my Son did at 2 1/2 without these.

If you are on the fence about these, get off it and buy them. Our kids safety is worth the 20-25 bucks and you will be so thankful they don't have to always hold your hand for every little thing. It really isn't so good on the back skating lap after lap bent over as another reviewer wrote. Trust me! I did that for a year with the "real good skates" that were not so good since my athleticly talented Son simply could not fully operate for quite a while, safely. Performance must be earned! Safety, operability and education come first and foremost and these skates deliver that! Just get them before they are too old that they become embarrassed for having plastic trainer skates.

UPDATE: It has been 8 months and the skates are still sturdy and near perfect, minus some scratches. I can't believe they held up, but the results are clear. She never got hurt and she has a good level of confidence. Moving them from Step 1 (completely locked) to Step 2 (only rolls forward), she landed on her tail a few times which made her be more careful. That saved her from falling on her face! Time to move her to big girl skates with slow bearings. I'm glad I bought these and she can still wear them in the house.