Driver's Ed - learner's permit, instruction, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can definitely take the classroom portion of drivers ed before the learners. Mine did it 2-3 months before. My kids felt it helped with the permit test and that way you can schedule it at the most convenient time. My daughter did it over her winter break which meant she had no conflicts and got it out of the way much more quickly (it met more frequently).

We did IDS. I have no experience with Greg’s to say if it’s good or bad but many of the kids’ friends used them and said it’s cheaper. We chose IDS because they came highly recommended and we liked the idea of learning directly from police officers. My kids thought the driving instructors were very helpful and I was impressed with those I spoke to. They really had some interesting perspectives based on their experiences. One took my daughter to areas they see lots of accidents (pedestrians, difficult merges, etc) to make sure she knew what sorts of hazards to look out for. Both of my kids were anxious about driving but gained a lot of confidence in the sessions.

+1

All three kids have done the classroom part (during school breaks - summer, winter, or spring) before they were able to get their learners permit. We used Greg's Driving school for all three, thought they were great. I think all the school's have similar flexible policies about missing a class (you have to make up that specific class in a different session) and being able to schedule driving lessons.

The on-the-road instruction is tailored to your student's needs, so we do most of the basics so that the time with the instructor is spent on skills/experiences we might not think of, or the kid is reluctant to try with a parent. We do all of the initial instruction (parking lot to neighborhood practice), then do the first lesson where the instructor can clean up some of the technical things. Then we will do more driving and teach the roads, intersections, merges around our area and do initial freeway practice (ICC is empty early on the weekends). Second driving lesson Greg's will do more highway/at speed practice. At home we then work on driving at night, poor weather, etc. The final formal instruction the instructor will take them to drive around the usual routes used for the in car test.