Master Drive

So. We're now done with our week of driver's ed! Noah completed the four classroom days then had two days of Drive Camp. We dropped him off yesterday morning...

He's in that last car in line, waiting to check in. Then Nathan and I drove home and left our car in the hands of our boy in the hands of the Master Drive instructors. Sniff. :) I was only a wee bit emotional. One, because my baby is growing up. Two, because the sum total of his actual driving experience consisted of less than an hour behind the wheel in a private parking lot with Nathan a week ago.

But. It's all good. :) When we picked him up after the first day, he was practically giddy...or as giddy as Noah gets, lol. You could tell he'd had a fantastic time. And he got to do it all again today. 

And, at the end of camp today, Nathan and I got to ride along during the "recital"...where the students drove part of the course a couple times, showing off many of their newly learned skills...crash avoidance, braking, and a slalom course. (Beforehand, an instructor talked to all of us parents about what the kids had learned and how we can help them continue practicing and what skills wouldn't be included in the recital. It was really quite thorough and well-run. Btw, there were 12 students in the two day Drive Camp and I counted six instructors, so those are pretty awesome numbers.)

And then each student received a certificate (a "masters degree," lol) and a round of applause:

Truly, we're very impressed by this program and are definitely glad we went this route. You can clearly see that Noah has so much more confidence behind the wheel, and I love how the instruction explained skills and the reasons behind them (which really is so much more effective for Noah). (Plus, *I* didn't have to try to teach him all of that.) During the recital, I honestly felt perfectly at ease with Noah at the wheel, and that's worth plenty. :)

Both Nathan and I left wishing that we'd had a drivers ed experience more like this. And, Nathan couldn't resist running the slalom part of the course, himself, on our way out, lol.

And now we wait until Noah's old enough to actually get his permit. :)