One of the things that teenagers look forward to is being able to drive the car. Depending on the family, this can be a relief since you won’t need to chauffer your teen around all the time – or it can be a scary thing as you watch your young driver move out from under your watchful eye. Whichever the case, you want to be sure that your student is well trained before driving off on their own, and while we’re at it, let’s earn some high school credit in Driver’s Ed for the work that is being done.
It’s a little scary isn’t it?!?
There are many ways to teach your student to drive. If you’re the calm type, you can do it all yourself, or you can delegate it out to another adult – but I do recommend that no matter the teacher, you follow an established course of study. In fact, many insurance companies will allow for student discounts if your child takes a specific Drivers Ed course. So, you may want to check with your carrier prior to beginning this course.
Here are a few options: The National Driver Training Institute offers a Driver’s Ed course for which they will issue a certificate upon completion. Or, Florida residents can take a driver’s ed course online with Florida Virtual School and many public schools offer driver training, even over the summer. Just give your local high school a call to see what they may have available. And, of course, there are many private companies that offer driver education to your student for a fee. Many of these fee-based courses go above and beyond the typical high school training course, especially in the areas of safety training or defensive driving. Here’s one example of a class offered by the Florida Safety Council.
Realize that the money you spend for a Driver’s Ed course may save you money on your insurance, making it well worth the fee. We paid about $200 for our daughter’s driver training, but saved $400 per year in insurance. Pretty good economics if you ask me.
In Florida, students ages 15 to 17 are required to hold a learner’s permit for at least one year before applying for their Drivers License. Here’s my favorite part of the whole process – during this year, students must drive with a licensed adult in the car. This can be a great time to do some serious bonding with your teenager. Having to ride together everywhere they go gives you many hours of conversation time during this year – take advantage of it!
~to your success
Joanne
Image courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net
Thank you for all this great information about driver education benefits! I really like your point about how if we are willing to pay for drivers Ed, then we might actually be able to get a lower rate for auto insurance. It would definitely depend on the company, but I’ll be looking into that for sure because my daughter is almost old enough to get a practice permit.