<p>welcome bamamom. seems like my 2014 d doesn’t have a lot of free time yet either but things should slow down a bit after July 4th. her work will end and a class she is taking will be done by then. we continue to work on her driving skills. she drives and i ride to generally all of her activities. her older brother, now a senior, is in the college search process so i follow the 2012 thread too.</p>
<p>I made my first post here a few weeks ago. Between my S1 who just graduated this week and my S2, the freshman who is in the midst of his finals, not to mention my job, I’ve been nothing short of nuts the last few weeks. </p>
<p>Youngest S, for whom I’ve joined this thread, decided last minute that he didn’t want to return to the creative writing program he’s done the last 2 summers at a local state U and wanted to instead apply to Columbia’s program. The application was just shy of a college app, and included a transcript, teacher and GC recs, essays and writing samples. He was just accepted last week and now I’m in the midst of doing all the paperwork required, ie. health forms, tuition, ID info, while he studies for his finals. His last day of school is June 24 and the Columbia program begins June 27; not much of a break. it’s a three-week program. Hopefully, he’ll enjoy it and learn a lot too. </p>
<p>Have to say, after going through the college process w/ his older brother, I think I’ll be a lot more chill next time around. I just don’t think I’ll have the same energy needed to worry, and that’s probably for the best. Of course, I did just come through the process and I have a few years before this kid will be at the peak of college-related stuff. Unfortunately by then my energy levels may be restored :)</p>
<p>BamaMom, I’m sure your daughter will enjoy The Hunger Games. That was a big hit at my high school last year and is the first book in a trilogy if she gets inspired. Huckleberry Finn can be hard to get into because of the dialect. HF makes a terrific recorded book, however. Especially if you are doing a lot of driving around, your D could listen to it in the car. My S14 and I really enjoyed the story a few years ago when we were doing a lot of driving.</p>
<p>Congrats to Renaissance son! What a good experience! I hope he enjoys his summer in NYC. I’m looking forward to my Barnard reunion next spring.</p>
<p>Hello! Newbie here!</p>
<p>Thought I would join the bandwagon early and it looks like I’m already late! DD14 will be a sophomore in the fall. She is ahead one year in school and is the youngest in the class. Just starting to experience the most difficult part of being the youngest…not driving yet!!</p>
<p>I look forward to learning and sharing over the next few years.</p>
<p>Welcome momthatcrops! I think you’ll find the newness of driving wears off as students talk about it less and less. My 2011 grad was young for his grade and was a bit slow on the license as he never had time with EC’s…no big deal. My 2009 grad was also young (17 at grad) and didn’t bother to drive until he was 18. He simply had no interest. It is hard when you are younger and it seems to be what everyone is talking about, but in our experience it is a short lived topic for this age and there are many that don’t drive right away anyway. </p>
<p>Happy Father’s Day to all our 2014 dad’s. I hope you all have a great day tomorrow!! :)</p>
<p>funny, my S1 just turned 18 and plans to get his driver’s license this summer before starting college. He did the drivers’ ed and got his permit at 16 but between college-related stuff, like studying for APs, SATs, school work, college apps, and ECs, he just couldn’t fit it in. It also didn’t help at all that both of our cars have manual transmissions. If one was an automatic, he’d probably have the license by now.</p>
<p>Interesting…I’ve wanted both our kids to have plenty of driving experience before they fly the coop. Our oldest is a good driver (better than me). Youngest will get his permit this summer.</p>
<p>One thing I regret with S1 is not forcing him to get enough driving experience before heading off to school. He’s taken driver’s ed but hasn’t even driven enough to reasonably expect to pass a driving test, let alone being a confident and experienced driver. It will be harder for him to learn and get experience when he needs to, but he was very reluctant, and at the time we thought we were lucky to not have to deal with that.</p>
<p>mathmomvt–That has been my concern. Fortunately both of our kids have been/are interested in learning to drive. My husband did not learn until after he graduated from grad school…he grew up in NYC and parents never owned a car, so there was no chance. When he did learn to drive, he totalled 2 cars in 1 year, both accidents on ice. Fortunately he was not injured. Will your son be living at home at any future point?</p>
<p>I kind of doubt he’ll be living at home again. We don’t live somewhere where he’d be able to get a summer internship of relevance and live at home, so I suspect he’ll always live at school and away on internships. I’m hoping he’ll practice when home on breaks like winter and spring break. But I wish he’d learned earlier, and will do things differently with S2.</p>
<p>I have a love/hate with teenage driving. I like that I don’t have to run my girls all over the place but I hate my 17 year old driving! Makes me so nervous. Both my daughters and two other girls are making an almost 100 mile trip to an amusement park than back home that same day. I don’t want them to do it but my husband thinks I am being overbearing and that we need to give them independence. Reluctantly, I agree. D1 is 17 and has been driving for almost 15 months (21 months if you count her permit) but it is so worrisome for me!</p>
<p>They will be driving on a two lane road, no highway, the entire way but that doesn’t help my nerves. They also will be leaving at 7pm so they won’t be driving in the dark…and be so tired. I know you have to let your kids grow up but it is so painful…</p>
<p>Thank you for the warm welcomes!</p>
<p>D1 is also younger than many of her peers, but she was also one that didn’t really want to drive. Even after getting her drivers license, she didn’t drive for a good 9 months! Just before her senior year she decided she didn’t want to ride the bus to school for another year since she would have so many art projects to cart back and forth so she got serious about driving. She will still let someone else drive if possible, and will not be taking a car to school (by choice). I too wish she had gotten a lot more experience before heading off to school.</p>
<p>D2 is anxiously waiting to get her permit and has been of age since March, but it has been difficult squeezing it in with all the activities. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we’ll get it. She is the complete opposite of D1 in that she wants to drive…I’m not sure which is worse! LOL! At least I know she’ll have lots of experience!</p>
<p>Apollo~she finished the book the day we got it 
She loves to read! I don’t think she has started Huckleberry Finn yet, but I don’t think she will have trouble with it. </p>
<p>mspearl~ I think I would also be worried about a road trip at 17, but I remember doing similar things at that age. Hope it goes well!</p>
<p>Driver’s Ed wraps up on Friday. Then, I think we’re talking school license. The kid’s only 4 months away from a regular license at 16, but we’re not letting d1 take a car to college, so we’ll have an extra sitting around. Of course it’s causing strife. D1 had to have a job before she could drive, but we didn’t have a car for her use until summer afer sophomore year. Since d2 could be driving at 15 with a school license, she won’t have a job yet. There’re just not many places that hire at 15.</p>
<p>I used to think giving a kid access to a car was the worst form of spoiling. Believe me, once I had a driver, I started singing a different tune. No more leaving work 15-30 minutes early because somebody had a game across town (and since that’s “local,” there’s no bus). No more dirty looks from the boss for taking lunch at 3 on wind chill days to take the kids home from school. Dance starts at 6 am every day? See ya! </p>
<p>I’ll be more worried about d2 because she’s not as cautious as big sis. Fortunately, until she gets that job, she won’t have the gas to go anywhere but school.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of a ‘school license’. What is this?</p>
<p>Our kids can get a learners at 15.5 with a written test. At 16 and 3 mths, and 9 mths after their learners minimum, they can get their license with classroom and behind the wheel training. Before behind the wheel they have to have 50hrs logged with a parent (some at night).</p>
<p>Our two older kids got their licenses later but had their permits by 16, and lots of driving experience before we considered letting them loose. S3 is earlier because we are loosing bus service and he’s older for his grade, whereas his brothers were young. We’ll drive him for a year, but by next summer he’ll have a year’s experience and be 17 :eek: I’ll be ready to let him drive!!</p>
<p>If a student has finished driver’s Ed, but is not yet old enough for license (16), he or she can get a school license, which allows the student to drive, unsupervised, to/from school and work (if the kid has been able to find a job).</p>
<p>Wow! I have to say I am glad we don’t have this option. A lot of kids drive to school here. There are restrictions on the number of kids you can have in the car with you under 18. They are largely ignored. Our kids were not allowed with other teen drivers for any reason, nor were they allowed to have a passenger that wasn’t their sibling until they were 18. This caused problems with their EC coach who would have liked S2 to offer rides to other kids. I was happy to do it, but not my kids. Too much distraction and too much can go wrong. I had no problem being the bad guy. It’s a family rule and will continue to be. Our kids never had a problem with it.</p>
<p>To have a student license I would imagine many use this to do other things as well, just as the passenger restrictions are ignored both by the students and their parents.</p>
<p>Not really with the school license. There’s probably more rule bending with the intermediate license they get at 16. They can lose a school license for being on any road that’s not a direct route from home to/from school or work. D2 won’t even be able to go get gas because she won’t drive by a gas station. She can have other kids in the car, but can’t pick them up, drop them off unless on a direct school route, which effectively eliminates passengers.</p>
<p>This year has been so easy because d1 has driven d2, but when d1 was a freshman/sophomore, half the time she was riding with goodness only knows who. I hated that.</p>
<p>Our High school parking lot is the MOST dangerous place to drive in town. I am sure they are all low speed accidents but I hate pulling in there when the kids are in a hurry to get somewhere.</p>
<p>29happymom26–Ditto in our town too! You risk dents, near collisions, etc by driving in the high school parking lot as school lets out.</p>