<p>I can tell you exactly how I learned to drive.</p>
<p>1) Parking lot.
2) Back country roads. No other cars to worry about and plenty of experience with curvy roads.
3) Large roads that have stop lights on them (but aren’t right in town or in a city).
4) 2 lane highways
5) In town/City driving - tighter spaces to drive, lots of stop lights, stop and go traffic, etc.
6) Expressways/turnpikes.
7) Rinse, wash, and repeat in regards to snow driving. I repeated steps 1 and 2 when learning how to drive stick then gave up. ;)</p>
<p>Please try not to make it seem like you are nervous. They are nervous enough.</p>
<p>My first day I did parking lot, the rest of that week I did country roads. the next week I did Large roads with stop lights on them. The next week I was allowed to drive on the large roads with two lanes. Next week I was allowed to drive through the towns and in cities, and the week after that I took the turnpike with my mom to a mall in philadelphia. I got my license two weeks later. I probably drove 2-3 hours every single day when I had my permit. As long as I paid for the gas my parents would just let me drive aimlessly with one of them in the car with me. I never took drivers ed. When I got my permit we had to keep it for at least 1 month and there was no minimum amount of hours that needed to be spent behind the wheel. I had mine for about two months and probably drove for 150 hours or so in that period.</p>
<p>Younger sister was a completely different individual. She hated driving. She’s had her license for 6 years now and has still never driven on the turnpike. I did it 5 weeks into having my permit. To this day I will argue I was a better driver then her at 5 weeks then she is at 6 years. Multiple accidents and dents in her cars later, other people my agree. When she got her permit, they had to have it for at least 6 months, and they needed at least 50 hours of documented driving on a log in order to get their license. She had hers for longer then 6 months and just barely teetered to the 50 hour driving mark. She took drivers ed and got her license through that.</p>
<p>I taught all three of mine because I was the one who had the time to do it and was taking them to practices, etc where they could practice driving to and from. The second time DD2 drove was in the snow and DD3 drove our stick shift pickup her fourth or fifth time out. They learned in two different states, but the driving requirements were pretty similar and logs had to be kept. </p>
<p>As mentioned, start in the parking lot and work up. It does get better!</p>
<p>DD got her learner permit at 15. We, like many, started her out in large parking lots (think empty church and school parking lots), then to neighborhood streets, main streets, and finally the interstate. I’m totally surprised that I’m the one who was very calm and supportive and DH was the one who was a nervous wreck. it’s like we had exchanged roles. Everyone does things differently but my feeling was that DD should be in the driver’s seat any time we were on the road. I felt that the more experience she got, the better. Her best friend, who is six weeks younger than her, often took trips with us so, when the two girls were accompanying me to Indiana one weekend, I told them they each had to drive part of the way there and part of the way home. I, of course, had permission from my best friend who is DD’s best friend’s mother. I had to laugh when twelve miles in to the trip, DD asked if she could please stop driving. NO! I made her keep driving. It was the only way she was going to get experience and I wanted to feel comfortable that she knew what she was doing when she eventually got her license. A couple of months later, they both started the driver’s ed class at their school, so they were getting quite a bit of practice. </p>
<p>Like any other parent, I was nervous the first few times she drove on her own after getting her license, but then excitement kicked in when it meant freedom for me from Mom’s taxi service and the occasional “Hey, would you mind going to the store for me and picking up …” </p>
<p>All I can say is, be supportive and try to avoid the white knuckle thing. Do your best to show you’ve got faith in them. If they think you’re nervous, it just makes them even more nervous. </p>
<p>Oh, we had a rule that DD could not listen to the radio for the first few months that she was driving on her own. IMO, that just serves as a distraction they do not need. I truly believe she adhered to that.</p>
<p>I told DH that I did child-birth. but teaching them to drive was HIS responsibility. Drivers-Ed-In-A-Box was a good tool. They teach the commentary that someone mentioned “I see the stop sign…I can go after the white car…I see the speed limit is 45…”. I think that is really a good idea! </p>
<p>DS2 is doing a different online program and I don’t think it’s as good. I’m a nervous wreck when he drives, but if my husband doesn’t speed up the instruction I may have to jump in. I will try the “sit on your hands” idea…thanks!</p>
<p>No, that was not so bad. The WORST part comes after they get their licenses. Every time your phone rings, your BP skyrockets - did they get into an accident?</p>
<p>Show your teen the basic car operation in a parking lot. Teach them to get a feel for the dimensions of the car by using the car’s mirrors and a couple of cardboard boxes, just like those driving school instructors do. Then find a business center. These places usually empty out on weekends, and there are streets with stop signs and possibly even traffic lights, which makes business parks ideal places for teaching the teen how to drive on “real” streets. Then make them drive you home from the business center, real streets and freeways and whatnot. :)</p>
<p>Oh, and get a “driver in training” sticker for the rear bumper (because your teen will be driving slower and more erratically than an experienced driver) so the drivers behind you will not be honking at you as much if they see the sign.</p>
<p>Not everyone in a driving ed school is good. Some kids may need more than 2 lessons before going on freeway. I think the most important things are: a) Know to control the car well. b) Effectively look out for other cars. c) Keep distance and speed.</p>
<p>I did the followings:
Start in a HS parking lot after school hours for basic control skills.
Teach left, right, u-turns in an industrial area on the weekends when people don’t go to work. Industrial areas are better than residential neighborhoods because there are no parked cars on the road.
Continue to teach left, right, u-turn, changing lanes in easy to manage neighborhoods during light traffic time.
Get on the freeway.</p>
<p>Once the kid can get on the freeway it’s easier to teach because you don’t have to worry the road will lead to the freeway or not.</p>
<p>Large empty parking lot at a community college for us. It had islands and perimeter “roads”, so we could practice coming to an intersection, stopping, turning left, turning right.</p>
<p>I set up some orange cones and had her do large figure 8’s across the entire parking lot to get the feel of slowing for a curve, looking ahead thru the curve, and accelerating.</p>
<p>I set up cones and had her practice all out emergency braking.</p>
<p>We did some three-point turns on the one lane perimeter roads. Pulling into and out of parking spaces.</p>
<p>Then, every time we drove on roads, we played a game of looking down the road and identifying potential problems – cars backing out of driveways, children playing in a yard, etc.</p>
<p>The first time it snowed, we headed back to the parking lot and practiced spinning the tires on ice, slamming on the brakes to feel the ABS braking activate, and sliding the car on ice.</p>
<p>I learned how to drive from Driver’s ed – my mom was too scared to teach me – but when I met the man who is now my husband, his car was a stick shift. </p>
<p>He tried to teach me, but I kept stalling. His father was actually a better teacher for me – more calm – he explained how you worked the clutch – but I’d never driven solo. One morning, we were out of half-and-half. Which meant I couldn’t have coffee, which meant I couldn’t function. </p>
<p>So I took out the car (a VW Jetta), stalled several times, got it going, got what I needed, then drove triumphantly back, only to hit a red light. On a hill. There I am, between a Mercedes and a Jaguar, hoping I won’t roll back/lurch forward. When the light turned green, I tried to do that simultaneous ‘ease off on the clutch/press down on the gas’ thing my FIL told me about, and I didn’t hit anyone, and I made it home.</p>
<p>Once the kid knows the basic driving skills you may want to order [Adept</a> Driver: The Science of Driving](<a href=“http://www.adeptdriver.com/store/]Adept”>http://www.adeptdriver.com/store/) to strengthen the skills. My insurance company reduced 25% premium after my kid completed the lessons.</p>
<p>(I’ll just mention how NOT to learn how to drive. At age 14, go with friend-of-friend to party. Friend-of-friend leaves with someone else. Drunk guy says “if you’ll drive, I’ll take you home.” “I don’t know how to drive.” “I’ll teach you.” I learned how to drive, in a stick-shift, at 2 AM, from a drunk guy I’d never met, in a city where I’d never been before.)</p>
<p>I actually have and it’s terrible when it happens. Keeping that in mind, left turns are risky for the passenger when a new driver is driving, because if they make a bad decision, it’s a broadside and a lot of judgement is involved in left turns. Therefore, when my kids were learning to drive, I did not have them do left turns in busy intersections right away and I did helicopter on those turns until I felt they were starting to get a feel for it. I started them on very quiet streets and moved gradually up. I also paid good money for lessons. I honestly think that learning driving skills is, dollar for dollar, at least as important an investment as college. For a few of my kids, I bought extra lessons when I felt they needed more. I figured they were safer in a car first learning with someone who had brakes on their side than with me. Also, as with anything else, a teenager is sometimes more likely to listen to someone who is not a parent. A good teacher is calm, containing and encouraging and not every parent can pull that off in such a high-stress situation.</p>
<p>Hmmm…DS1 gets good grade discount, but with Nationwide it’s not very much AND they keep mysteriously losing it even though I religiously email them his grades!</p>
<p>State Farm has discounts for completing their “Steer Clear” program. They also give good grade discounts and another one for doing the schools drivers ed on the road training. It all adds up quite a bit.</p>
<p>I did most of the Drivers training for all three of my kids. Did the same sequence as most people starting with the parking lots. Our Drivers Ed on-the-road teachers require the parents to do the basic lessons before they’ll go out with them. It was months before we did a big highway.</p>
<p>Driver’s Ed here is offered free to all public sch. students. They take the classroom portion first …about three weeks of staying afterschool for class. Then the do the practice driving with an instructor. There are always two kids in the car and they take turns driving for several hours. They do this for four days I think. Both drove on the big city interstate as part of their practice driving
They can take Driver’s Ed and fourteen and half and can get their permit at fifteen.
They have to keep their Permit for a full year before they can get their license (unless they’re over eighteen).</p>
<p>I was the primary front seat rider with both boys. DH tended to yell and startle them and constantly give them instructions that just flustered them. </p>
<p>I tried to stay really calm at all times…talking in very even tones and acting as if I had full confidence in them. Give instructions in such a way that they don’t feel stupid. </p>
<p>We did all the “parking lot” practice before they took Driver’s Ed. so hit the local roads when they got the permit. S2 drove us to Wendy’s for a celebratory burger the day he got his permit.</p>
<p>I’m glad I only have one kid, because I’d rather have a monthly colonoscopy than go through that again!</p>
<p>I tend to get nervous when anyone else is driving, even my DH, but for some reason S wanted me to be the one to teach him to drive. We went out to a parking lot twice, then he said he wasn’t ready yet. It was near the end of his senior year when he finally decided he was ready.</p>
<p>I bought a set of three magnetic Student Driver signs for the back and both sides of the car ([New</a> Driver Magnetic Student Driver Car Signs](<a href=“http://www.vat19.com/dvds/studentdriver.cfm]New”>New Driver Magnetic Student Driver Car Signs)). We started in the parking lot again, then neighborhood streets and a lot of driving on the Army base (low speed limit and the other drivers were more polite). I stayed remarkably calm (for me), but I made DH take him out on the Beltway–I wouldn’t have survived that! If I’d had to learn to drive in northern Virginia, I’d still have my permit…</p>