How to ride with small (5+ yo) kids?

You ride at their speed and ability......and have the time of your life.

Sorry, I should have been more clear.

I'm definitely not talking about training rides here, that's what lonely early morning are for. And I take it as a given that there will be lots of trips around the neighborhood where she sets the pace and I get to enjoy watching her improve. But in our house there's always been a third kind of ride where the whole family hits up a local rail trail or MUP to cruise along, enjoy the scenery, and see how far it takes us. When she was smaller, this is when she'd have gone in the trailer. Do people just shelve those kinds of lazy weekend rides until the kids can hack it on their own, or is there a way to still make it work? I can roll either way, I'm just curious if anyone else has figured it out.

There's family rides, and there are training rides.  These are two different things entirely if the kids are operating their own bikes.  Younger kids are good for family rides, not training rides.  The challenge comes when going for a family ride after you've just put in four solid hours on the bike.  That's when caffeine comes in handy.   ;-)

Edit, since you were posting your clarification while I was writing this.  I see what you mean now.  My suggestion is find something she can do.  If it's too hard for her to push herself on the family ride you like, then switch to hiking or something like that until she's a little bigger and can power her own bike on the terrain you want to cover.

Check craigslist for one of those tagalongs that hook to your bike.  That way you can see if she will like it and sell it if not.  There is one on my local craigslist for $50.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll keep an eye on CL for a used tagalong (there aren't any currently listed that are drive-ably close). I really didn't want to drop any money on one without hearing of other positive experiences. And in the meantime I guess we'll just stick to shorter, slower rides set at her pace.