<p>My dad tried to teach me how to drive. We are <em>very</em> similar in temperament (on the high-strung side) and it was a complete disaster (although I’m an excellent driver now, both cars and motorcycles). My son and I are similar enough that I knew I wasn’t going to teach him to drive without bloodshed. I spent a couple of sessions in the passenger seat in the back parking lot at the community college, teaching him how to work a clutch and shifter, but all of the road work was DH’s bailiwick. He’s a very sensible and even-tempered guy, and a fine driver as well. DS was not one of those kids who couldn’t wait to get his license; he had to accumulate 50 supervised hours after his driver’s ed class (it would have been 100 hours without the class) and it took him a year and a half to do it had finally go get his license.</p>
<p>So I guess my advice for teaching a kid to drive is “get someone else to do it.”</p>
<p>Our state unfortunately thinks it’s okay for 14 year olds to drive.</p>
<p>I was shocked yesterday when a friend told me he’s teaching his 13 yr old to drive so she’ll be ready for driver’s ed next year when she’s 14!</p>
<p>I didn’t feel any pressure for my kids to have driving experience before driver’s ed. They had their first behind-the-wheel experience in driver’s ed. They also have dual-control cars in driver’s ed, which I don’t have.</p>
<p>After driver’s ed experience, I was the one who did the road time, not H. I do a lot of tech support in my job and discovered a lot of similarities - have to speak calmly and instructively so the person learns and does not get all flustered. H is more of a screamer and would overreact.</p>
<p>Both kids (experienced drivers because they’re well over 14 now!) have also noticed that H isn’t a great driver - he doesn’t think the “rules” apply to him. Doesn’t get into accidents, but would qualify for several tickets if observed by law enforcement.</p>
<p>I mainly had the kids drive all the places I was already driving them, except I was now the passenger.</p>
<p>Also, consider two simple rules for safe street driving from which all other rules can be derived from:</p>
<ol>
<li> Avoid being surprised.</li>
<li> Avoid surprising others.</li>
</ol>
<p>Rule 1 leads to things like:
Adjust your mirrors to minimize blind spots.
Be sure that you can stop for or drive around any obstacle that may appear in front of you, or if the vehicle in front of you crashes to a stop or swerves away to reveal a stationary object.
Be wary of sight lines around blind corners or over hill tops. There may be stopped traffic just around the blind corner.</p>
<p>Rule 2 leads to things like this:
Avoid driving in places where other drivers typically have blind spots. If you are behind and cannot see the other driver’s face in his/her mirrors, then you are probably in his/her blind spot.
When entering a road, avoid doing so in a way that forces others to slow for or swerve around you. This includes using the accelerator on an on-ramp to a freeway so that you enter at freeway speed, not 20mph slower.
Give accurate signals before turning or changing lanes. However, if there are two possible places to turn, and you want to turn into the second one, wait until it is obvious you will not be turning at the first one before signaling.</p>
<p>5 stages of driving instruction when I took my kids out:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I drive and talk about things to do and look out for: stop behind the white line at the traffic light or stop sign; I’m checking my mirror and noting that person who is coming up on my left; watch out for stupid drivers like the guy on my right who is talking on his cell phone, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Kid drives while I instruct or correct: you need to stop behind the white line; you need to come to a complete stop at the stop sign; check your blind spot before you change lanes, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Kid drives while I shut completely up (unless there’s about to be in an accident). (Hardest one to do–also, try to be careful and modulate your breathing. Kids will notice it).</p></li>
<li><p>Kid drives your car while you’re not in it. [WORRY!]</p></li>
<li><p>Kid drives her own car and has her own insurance. [BLISS!]</p></li>
</ol>
<p>To Momlove - Have you looked to see if your child has a student driving book or booklet? Pennsylvania has one that gives you lesson by lesson directions and a place for you to record the hours your child spends in on the road driving. It does a great job covering everything they need to know. You can download it here [Pennsylvania</a> DOT Driver Handbook - Download the PA Driver Handbook - DMV Guide](<a href=“http://www.dmv.org/pa-pennsylvania/driver-handbook.php]Pennsylvania”>Pennsylvania PennDOT Driver Handbook | DMV.ORG) if your state doesn’t have one. Some rules may be slightly different in your state but I found it very helpful.</p>
<p>BTW, something that many parents don’t know is that your child must follow the rules of the state they drive in. That is, your 15 year old may be legal to drive with a permit in your state, but it is illegal for them to drive in PA since our laws only allow 16 year olds to drive.</p>
<p>Student driver needs to follow the driving handbook of his/her own state. As a teaching parent, you may need to search for the parent guide for teen driving (besides the common driving handbook). The guide helps parents give concise instructions as a theory part of driving instead of giving inconsistent and not clearly stated instructions based on our past experience and habits. When helping my kids, I found that the California parent guide is not adequate and I found that the Texas parent guide has some helpful ideas. For example, the Texas guide has clear diagrams and instructions how to position the car along the lane markers and the curbs. I did not show the guides to the kids to avoid confusing them. I only needed to remember the key instructions when taking them to practice.</p>
<p>Another NJ parent here. I too was surprised how little real instruction they get from the required professional driving school. In South Jersey it means a couple trips up the Garden State Parkway with a return home through the Pine Barrens. Somehow, although my H is the best parallel parker I have ever seen (grew up driving a delivery truck in NYC), he could not teach it. I downloaded instructions from some random police department from the internet and taught the kids to parallel park between two big trashcans in a church parking lot. With my second we spent more time on driving backwards since my first had trouble with that on the test.</p>
<p>Re: Blind Spots
I read a study a few months back that measured the blind spots among various makes & models AND heights of drivers. Needless to say, some cars are worse than others. Also, shorter drivers experience MUCH bigger blind spots. Yup, I could have told them that. So let tall Dad know if he is the one teaching petite daughter.</p>
<p>It is mainly focused on what you can see while driving in reverse (as in parking maneuvers). In many vehicles, a short driver would have a hard time seeing a small child behind the vehicle.</p>
<p>A different kind of blind spot would be the rear side blind spot when changing lanes. Some vehicles with large C pillars do not have good direct visibility, so drivers must depend on their mirrors. While those experienced in driving cargo vans and commercial vehicles are more likely to have their mirrors set to cover those blind spots (and/or have additional mirrors installed), many people driving regular cars are not used to such lack of outward visibility. The common method of adjusting the side mirrors to see the side of one’s own car leaves the rear side as a blind spot in mirror coverage, so if the direct view is obscured, that can make changing lanes very unsafe.</p>
<p>That’s why you should do the exercise with movable objects (cardboard boxes or orange cones, if you have them) or using yourself as a movable object with the kid in the driver’s seat prior to letting them loose on the streets or in a parking lot! There is a description of how it is done on Yahoo answers but I cannot link it because CC bleeps out Yahoo dot com!</p>
<p>^ Yes, the kids need to experience and observe themselves.
I told my kids to get out of car and look for themselves to feel how they did after each parking. I told them to stop the car in the middle of the lane and get out in the HS parking lot to see the real distance between the wheels and the lane marker when they learn to position the car using the left and right side of the hood as reference points.</p>
<p>My advice: a good driving school! Where I live, most people go to Master Drive, a program developed by a former race car driver whose teenage daughter was killed in a car accident. He realized she could have lived had she had defensive driving skills used in racing. </p>
<p>I’m sure there are many programs like this one. Yes, they’re expensive. But you should see how effective they are! I saw my kids navigate through a tricky obstacle course, learn how to steer the car out of a sharp skid, make emergency stop while practically hyrdoplaning. Both son and daughter are excellent, skilled drivers who understand how to maneuver a car under all kinds of conditions. </p>
<p>My dad taught all six of us to drive the same way. He took us out to a very large, very empty parking lot, gave us a ten minute lesson on how to turn the car on, the clutch the brake, the gas pedal, the lights, etc. He then took his golf club and a bucket of balls and got out of the car and went off and drove balls and had us just drive around the parking lot alone until we could drive around the lot comfortably. Only then did he get back in the car and take us out on the road. He would answer questions if we needed them, but for the most part, he had us figure it out on on our own. Some time it would take two or three tries, but we all pretty much taught ourselves to drive.</p>
<p>We did the same thing with both our boys – the only thing is it requires a lot of patience and very low blood pressure.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, I know you are trying to joke, but this is not a laughable exercise. The kid sits in the car, in the driver’s seat. The engine is OFF, and the car is not moving. You move around the car (or move the box). It is a very easy way of drilling into their heads that their field of vision will be limited when they are driving, and not every object close to them can be seen in the mirrors. A reputable driving school will do this prior to showing their student how to turn the engine on. I’m not kidding.</p>
<p>Then you move on to teaching what coolweather described.</p>
<p>There is a very good reason why your kid should have a few professional driving lessons even if it is not required by your state. A professional instructor will teach the kid about the nuances of the driving test and might even run a mock test. How many WA parents here taught their kid that s/he has to at least pretend to adjust all mirrors when the examiner gets in the passenger seat? Yup, points were being taken off for not doing that, although all mirrors were adjusted since the kid drove the car to the DMV.</p>
<p>It was not a joke; it was intended to be serious. What made you think it was a joke?</p>
<p>People might take the blind spot issue more seriously if they realized how difficult to see a small child, baby carriage, bicycle, or motorcycle is around their car (parked with the student driver in the driver’s seat as described in the exercise) in many situations, as opposed to random objects like cardboard boxes, or (more visible) adults standing tall.</p>
<p>Backing over a cardboard box may not seem like as big a deal as backing over a small child or baby carriage.</p>
<p>Took both D & S to vacant lots. Think my jaw is finally unclenched and my leg has recovered from stomping hard on the imaginary brake on the passenger side.</p>
<p>Professional driving class is well worth it. Also, about a year after S got his license, a
defensive driving class taught by professional race car drivers was offered in our area.
S got to drive, learn how to correctly skid/swerve, etc. in BMW’s. He learned more useful info in this than the class before his license. Best of all…it was FREE!<br>
Driversedge dot com If it comes to your area, book early—very popular.</p>
<p>My D may have gotten into her dream school ,but her driving was weak . My H did all the practice with her . 2 years later ,and I’m still not comfortable .</p>