Driving Lessons

You can give your teens driving lessons once they have their learner’s permits. The best place to start driving lessons is in the driveway. Familiarize your teen with all the dashboard components, what they are and how to operate them. Show your teen how to adjust the rearview and side mirrors and how to move the seat and steering wheel into a comfortable position. Show your teen where the emergency lights are located and make sure that he or she knows how to turn them on and off. Tell you teen about possible lights that may appear on the dashboard (oil lights, temperature light, low fuel, etc) and what they mean. Next, drive your teen to an empty parking lot and dig down deep inside yourself to tap into your sense of humor and patience!  Both of these will be needed to make driving lessons a successful venture for both you and your teen.

The first few driving lessons should be simple. All your teen will be doing is to learn how the vehicle feels. This is when your teen will learn about applying the brakes and gas, backing up and turning. Once your teen has a general idea of how the vehicle handles, you can progress to parking and pulling in and out of parking spaces.

When you do take your teen out to drive on the road, you should probably stick to driving lessons on main roads that have speed limits of 35 mph or under. These roads are better equipped with shoulders where your teen can pull over if he or she becomes overwhelmed. In addition, side roads are sometimes more narrow than side roads which can make both you and your teen very nervous. Teach your teen to look ahead when driving and to scan the road for possible hazards such as people pulling out of their driveways or people running stop signs.

This is the groundwork for giving your teen driving lessons. If you have reached this point together and you both are on good speaking terms, rest assured that your remaining driving lessons will probably be as smooth.