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Kid just turned 16, and we are in MD so he’s had his permit for 3 months with 6 more to go.
He is getting a lot of practice and is pretty good. He is finishing up the classroom portion of driver’s Ed and wondering when to do the in car portion. Now? Spread out over the next six months? Right before his test? What are other people doing? |
| What I learned from when my DS did drivers ed (and now my DD is going through it) is to space it out if you can. One session pretty soon after finishing the classroom portion, one half-way from there to taking the drivers test, and one right before taking the drivers test. |
| We started when my kids had about 30 hours behind the wheel. I wanted to be sure they had the basics and were comfortable/confident enough to benefit. We did the 3rd a few days before the test and then the 2nd was somewhere in between. |
| We did a lot of work with our kids. The behind the wheel program we used was iDriveSmart. I we liked it a lot. |
| We used idrivesmart. Child did a few lessons with us first. Then 5 with the instructor. Now racking up the hours with us before doing the final two lessons this fall. The final lesson is the actual driving test…so, be sure the child is prepared. We wanted to make sure that we were not teaching old driving techniques so we moved to the in at sessions early. If I was doing it again, I probably my would have done 3 with the instructor towards the beginning and held the lady 4 till fall (after many, many more hours with us in the car). |
| What’s an old driving technique? |
NP, but the biggest change, according to my kids, is that now they teach you to hold the wheel at 8 and 4 (at least in VA). I learned 10 and 2 back in the dark ages so I reminded them often not to imitate me but to do things the way the drivers manual teaches. |
Brake pumping, largely antiquated by antilock brakes. |
We spread them out after he had about 20 hours of driving practice. He just completed the 3rd (final) one, and he's signed up to do the road test in early August. The school we used had him drive on local roads for the first lesson, more local roads & parking practice for the second lesson, and highway (Beltway, ICC, and 95) for the final car session. |
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The drivers instruction company we're using has a special permit to take kids out to drive before they have their permit. DC is going to take one 2-hour lesson before their written test to help the material "gel".
The rest of the hours in the package we bought are spread out, once a week with the instructor and with us parents (DC has to pass the written permit test for this phase obviously). |
| People spread them out? When I was a teen (in VA) you did “behind the wheel” all consecutive days until it was done. |
| MD parent here - we did different types of driving over the course of the permit - highway/bumper to bumper/downtown city/raining/etc and then did the 6 hrs of instructor when he had about 10 hrs left to work on fine tuning things/parking/parallel parking (yes, it isn't on the test, but a life skill), etc. |
| We did I drive smart. By just choosing conflict-free, available, convenient times and locations will spread out your sessions. I’d like hAve it done over the summer, if possible. DD ended up taking 6 am sessions 15 miles away just to get it over with. |
I was baffled by this change too! I wonder why they changed it |
Airbags 10 & 2 is more likely to get your arms messed up |