7 Benefits of Teaching Your Teen to Drive

The moment you’ve been dreading for nearly 16 years is finally here. It’s time for your teenager to learn how to drive. Whether it’s your first go-round or your last kiddo, you have to decide if you will teach your teen to drive or let a professional driving instructor do it.

If you’re still on the fence about what’s best for your teen, take a look at these seven benefits of teaching your teen to drive to help make your decision a little clearer.

They can learn from your personal experiences:

Teens may benefit most from hearing your personal driving experiences rather than from an instructor they don’t know. Since you’re an experienced driver whom they trust, by talking to your teenager about your ups and downs of driving and tell stories of any tickets or car crashes you were involved with. What you learned from those experiences, you can turn any personal driving story into a valuable learning lesson for your teenage driver.

Drive whenever, wherever you want:

Homeschooled teens have more opportunities to practice driving whenever, wherever. Every outing to the grocery store, soccer practice, or trip to the city can be a valuable learning experience for your teen. This will help them become more comfortable behind the wheel and allow them to act out real-life scenarios.

Remember, if you live in an area with inclement weather, be sure to take those opportunities with your teen to practice driving in the snow or heavy rain. These are very important skills. Also, try to give your teen driver access to situational parking skills like parking on a steep hill, parallel parking and when or where it is safe to make a U-turn. The more diverse your practice, the better your teen will be.

Earn your trust:

After spending 50 hours or more supervising your teen behind the wheel, you’re sure to feel a lot more confident about their driving skills. Hopefully, they will have earned your trust by the end of the course and feel better about tackling the wide-open road without you.

You can also take this chance to instill good habits like wearing a seat belt and avoiding distracted driving.

Go more in-depth with the lessons:

As a driving instructor, you have the ability to go more in-depth with your lessons and talk about driving more often than driving school instructors. Unlike most driver‘s education courses, you will have time to thoroughly discuss the before and after of every lesson and talk about other driving topics, such as maintenance, repairs, and the anatomy of a car. You can also teach your teen how to change a tire, jumpstart a battery, test the oil and coolant levels, and much more.

More one-on-one time:

A huge benefit of teaching your teen to drive yourself is that you get lots of valuable one-on-one time. You don’t have to worry about other teens being in the car or instructors rushing through lessons. It’s just you and your child. During this time, you can discuss the seriousness of driving and talk about your driving expectations.

Convenient:

One of the biggest benefits of teaching your teen to drive is the convenience of doing it on your own time. You can organize the driving lessons to fit around your schedule and use nights or weekends to fit in lessons when it’s convenient for you and your child. You don’t have to mess with dropping off and picking up your teen after their driving education class.

Cheaper:

Teaching your teen to drive is cheaper than enrolling in a driver education school. Depending on where you live, a parent teaching program will likely cost no more than $20 or $30. The money you save from not enrolling in a driver education school can be put toward your teen’s insurance or first car.

The Advantages of Driving for Teenagers

There are several reasons why parents might decide to teach their children to drive themselves. One reason may be that they believe there is nothing wrong with letting kids drive if they know what they are doing. Another reason could be that they think that teenagers need to start practicing driving early in life. Whatever the case, we hope that our article has helped you understand the pros and cons of homeschooling your teenage driver.

The pros of teenage driving are that they will gain more experience behind the wheel than if they were to learn as an adult.  Teenagers adapt quickly and are able to learn to drive much faster than adults. Hopefully, they will learn to be less distracted by things like texting or phone calls while driving. And of course, the biggest pro for most teenagers is the independence that comes with being able to drive themselves around town.

If you have a teen learning to drive, one of the most important things you can do is take a deep breath. While stressful, you are helping your teen become an experienced driver with confidence and eventually, skill. As a student behind the wheel, the more practice driving sessions they get, generally the better their driving habits are. Not only that, but they obtain more driving experience. This will prepare your teen to be a safe driver.

Driving School Is Always a Good Option

If you want your teenager to learn how to drive safely like other responsible adult drivers, then you should consider having them take a private driving instruction course. Private driving schools offer many advantages over public ones. They allow you to choose which classes you wish to attend and work at your pace. Most importantly, they provide you with individualized attention so that you can focus on improving your driving skill while still having fun.

When choosing between different types of driving schools, make sure that you find one that offers both classroom and hands-on training. You want to ensure your child understands all of the implications of driving, from having an additional passenger to discouraging risky driving.

How do you get the best insurance rates for your teen driver?

If you’re teaching a teenage driver, you need good auto insurance. With good grades and other discounts, insurance rates don’t have to be unmanageable. To get a quote today, enter your ZIP code and use our calculator to see your options.