Emmy’s 1st driving lesson aged 11 with Young Driver Review
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**Disclaimer: Emmy received her driving lesson in exchange for an honest review of her experience – driving lesson aged 11 with Young Driver
How many times have you been driving and the kids in the back are desperate to get your attention? Shouting, arguing, asking you to change the song, talking away or trying to point things out to you as you pass them. It happens all the time and generally, it’s fine but I do find myself saying I have to concentrate on the road at the moment.
Driving takes a lot of care, focus and your full attention and sometimes the kids don’t understand this fully. Now Emmy has had her 1st driving lesson aged 11 I think she now understands it’s not just a case of hopping into the car and that’s all.
Young Driver offers driving lessons with fully qualified instructors for children aged between 10 and 17 years of age. They can have one-off lessons of either 30 or 60 minutes or they can book more lessons to hone their skills and be fully ready for passing their tests when they reach that age. This is a fantastic way of teaching children the responsibility and attention needed to drive safely, and it is done in private closed car parks so they are fully safely away from other cars, pedestrians and distractions.
Emmy had an hours driving lesson which was held at our closest venue which was at Lakeside, Thurrock in Essex. There are 70 venues to choose from. Her lesson was on the top floor of one of the multi-storey car parks, closed off to other cars with sole use of Young Drivers. The area was set up with different areas to simulate roundabouts, T-Junctions, and various road layouts you would find on your normal driving lessons – only without the distractions of other road uses other than the other young drivers having their lessons at that time.
You need to arrive about 15 minutes before you booked time slot to allow you to book in – face masks are needed (unless you are exempt) and all the instructors and staff wear these too. You also sanitise your hands before getting into the car. You can have the option of having a video of your driving sessions – this is a camera inside the car and the footage is emailed over to you, this is an additional cost of £15 (we didn’t do this).
She was so excited to get into the car and have a go, I think I was the one who was more nervous if I am honest. I remembered my first lessons and how boring it was with very little learnt and such a short distance covered. Her lesson was the exact opposite – she learnt SO much and didn’t stop driving the whole time.
With a very quick introduction of the gears and controls, she was zooming off – and yes, very literally zooming – it seems she liked the gas pedal (her instructor’s words after her lesson). She learned to change gears, read the road signs, follow traffic, and all the other things you would expect on a driving lesson.
She picked it all up very quickly, stopping at give-way signs, indicating correctly to turn corners and into roads, and giving way to traffic correctly. She learnt to read the road and road signs, and then, as she had grasped it all so quickly, she was taught to manoeuvre around road cones, park in parking bays and then reverse park and parallel park.
Watching her do all this in just one hour lesson was amazing – these are skills which I wasn’t taught until I had done hours of lessons and the weather when she was doing her lesson was horrible, it rained for the whole time making huge puddles, wet roads and none of this fazed her at all.
I have perfected my parallel parking and reverse parking now as we have no driveway at home, but those are skills that don’t always come easily and I have to say I was so impressed with her doing these and getting to grips with them so quickly. Yes, I know she had an instructor telling her where and how to turn but at 11 years of age on her 1st driving lesson, it wasn’t something I had expected to see.
Nor was I prepared for her being able to reverse slalom through the traffic cones she had previously driven through – that one I am sure I would struggle with myself and I’ve been driving since I was 18!
This is an experience I would definitely recommend. She had the best time and has already asked if she can have another lesson.
Her exact words were: “That was the best fun ever” – now for a tween who nods and grunts to most things that’s the biggest praise you can possibly get.
Lessons can be booked for 30 minutes at £44.99 or 60 minutes for £79.99 for 10 to 17-year-olds. You can find your nearest venue on the website www.youngdriver.eu/venuefinder
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Clare
Hi, I'm Clare (Emmy's Mummy). A former Nanny and Mother of 2 - Emmy (born February 2010) and Harry (born October 2012). We are Essex based and share our adventures and misadventures of a busy crazy life.
