In about one month I am going to be taking my on road drivers test. In Alberta we are allowed to get our learners license at the age of fourteen and our graduated drivers license when we are sixteen. With our learners license we get to drive as long as we have an adult with a class five license in the car with us! When I was old enough to take my learners test my parents strongly encouraged me to get it since it would give me plenty of time to practice and get comfortable driving with my dad! He tries to get me on the road quite often! Even in the winter so that I get maximum practice and am comfortable in all different types of road conditions. I’d have to say that this really helped me because I am already comfortable enough driving that I feel prepared for my drivers test!

My parents got starter cars for both my sister and I; we are huge fans of starter cars because they aren’t too expensive for a car, they are super good on gas, and quite small (AKA way easier to park in than most other cars)! My parents were quite smart in that sense because when my sister did crash (twice….) it wasn’t as big of a mess to fix afterwards. Of course my parents weren’t pleased that she got into an accident but it was less awful than it would have been had she been driving an insanely expensive car! Me and my sister both drive my moms car and when my sister got her GDL my mom set out some ground rules for using her car. The rules included the following: my sister couldn’t take it unless she was given permission, the gas tank could not be less then halfway full, and finally, the keys for the car always had to be on the hook so that if my mom needed them she could find them easily. These rules really helped so that there weren’t any arguments over the car or any misunderstandings.

The one thing that I am most nervous about going into my test is parallel parking… It is such a daunting thing to do, even with the tiny car that I drive! My mom came up with a really good idea for practicing. If you have an alley at the back of your house you can put two garbage cans on either side to simulate two cars and a ladder nearby to simulate the curb. This way it was much less scary when I was practicing because if I hit the garbage cans or the ladder it wasn’t the end of the world. It ended up working quite well and now I am as comfortable with parallel parking as I am with everything else!

Transportation Activities on DLTK’s Crafts for Kids