Teach Your Kids to Drive in 20 Lessons

(Note: There is a specific version of this book for readers from Northern Ireland: Teach Your Kids to Drive in Northern Ireland)

Welcome to the easiest way for you to help take someone through to their driving test, with or without the help of a professional driving instructor. This book takes you from that first Sunday-morning drive around a deserted car park all the way through to driving test day, covering all the essential car control skills, road knowledge, and test manoeuvres along the way.

The idea is for you to read through a lesson with your pupil, then discuss it with them, adding in your tales of the road – your knowledge and experience – before finally taking them out to practise what’s been discussed in that lesson. Then you can leave them to revise the lesson, just as many times as they wish.

The twenty lessons here have been developed over my thirty year career as a driving instructor, with two thousand driving test passes and half-a-million driving instruction miles. I’ve also worked as a lorry driver and my hobby is riding motorbikes, and both trucks and bikes have taken me all over the UK and Europe. I’ve also written extensively on the subject of driving, both online and for publication.

These lessons, then, are a result of a lifetime’s road experience.

But what these lessons aren’t is a rehash of any official-sounding government driving book. So, errors and omissions, though hopefully few, are nonetheless accepted! But that’s where your knowledge and experience comes into the mix. We’ll work together. I lay the foundations, you build on them.

Which all sounds great. In theory. But I know what you’re thinking…

You’re thinking that the driving test has changed massively since your day, so you’re totally out-of-touch. And you’re thinking that if you did try to teach someone then all you’d really end up doing is passing on out-of-date information and all those bad habits of yours. So, perhaps you’re thinking that, although driving lessons are expensive, at least an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI) will have the knowledge and the experience to get your pupil through the test.

So, yeah, okay, that’s fair, but let’s break things down...

First, yes, the test has evolved over the years. But that’s the thing – it’s evolved – a few subtle changes here-n-there, that’s all. If you had to do another one today, no matter how long it’s been since you did yours, you’d still recognise it. And the skills involved – the actual driving – well, that’s the same as it’s always been. You probably do it virtually every day.

Ah, but what about those bad habits of yours? Well, if you really did have to retake your driving test today, how would you approach it, how would you actually drive? Would you have the radio blasting your favourite tunes with a large coffee tucked in the cup holder, zooming along? No, of course you wouldn’t. If your licence depended on it, you’d use a little bit of common sense and drive properly. It might take an hour-or-so of practise to get the hang of it all again but you wouldn’t have a problem passing.

So, essentially, if you taught someone to do what you would do if you had to pass another driving test, you wouldn’t go far wrong. You would simply use your common sense, your road knowledge and your experience – and you would get the job done.

Your knowledge is as valid as anyone else’s. You know what you’re talking about.

But some things will be harder for you to put across to your pupil than others. You see, to you, controlling a car and dealing with the road is second nature, as natural as walking, say. But because it all seems so easy to you, you’ve probably not thought about the finer details involved for a very long time…

That's where this book comes in!