Driving Lessons

We are less than a month away from Sarah's road test to get her driver's license, so I thought that it would be a good time to take her out for some much needed driving practice.  We got a list from the DMV when she got her temps that listed all the driving skills she would be tested on.  Two of the items that we have never practiced with her are straight line backing and parallel parking, so this is what I took her out to work on.

I thought going to a large, empty parking lot would be the best but after a few attempts at backing up in a straight line she was frustrated to the point of being in tears because she couldn't keep the car straight.  We then went over to the place where her driving instructor took her to practice, which was a dead end road by a city garage.  This allowed her to use the curb as a guide.  So we went front and back a few times, each time ending in her saying she couldn't do it.  In reality, she may have been off from 100% straight by a couple of feet.  It wasn't like she was starting on the right side of the road and ending up on the left side.  I didn't think she did that bad, but we'll have to see what the examiner says when it comes time for her drivers test.

Then we went to do some parallel parking.  I found a couple of cars parked on the street and tried to give her some tips on how to do it.  It was pretty easy, because it wasn't like pulling into a spot between two cars, we only had single cars to use.  I lined it up and slowly showed her how to do it, when to turn the wheel and how much.  As always, I did it perfectly.  Then I let Sarah try it sitting next to her guiding her the whole way.  Her first attempt was perfect, just like mine.  So we tried it a couple more times, and each time she got it done, though one was a little close, just because she pulled up to close next to the car she was parking behind.  When it came time to turn the wheel she just barely cleared the bumper. 

She has more practice with her on the road practice coming up this week, so we'll see how she does with them, but so far I think she is doing pretty well with her practice.