Saturday, January 28, 2012

Driver's Ed

Back in August, Savannah turned 15. In Texas, that's the magic age for getting your driver's permit, assuming you have taken driver's education class. Savannah had not yet taken it at the time of her birthday, so no permit for her (yet). We called the local driving school back in the summer and checked the price. (Gasp! $375!) We weren't really sure how we would pull that off because last time I checked, we have all of about $70 in our savings account. We put her off through the Fall. Honestly, football season & band practices make her week very full, so adding in 4 days a week for a driver's ed class just didn't seem feasible. Plus there was still that whole money thing. We told her we needed to wait until Spring. She understood & agreed that was best.

Well....the Spring semester of school has arrived. We called the driver's school back to recheck the price & see if it was still the same (it was), so we decided to check the online classes you can take instead. Fortunately, you can take the class online for less than half the price of the regular classroom version so we are going that route! We plan to get her signed up next week and will start the class ASAP after we pay the state their $20 fee for being an at-home student.

Here's the scary part. Savannah will take driver's ed now, then will have about 6 months until her 16th birthday. I believe the state now requires kids to have their instructional permit for 6 months before they can take their driver's license test, so this will work out just about right for her to get her license shortly after her birthday. She's already realizing how many big changes are coming for her in the coming year. A driver's license, getting a job (to pay for a car & contribute to our insurance bill!), her next-to-last year of high school, beginning to consider colleges and possibly dating somewhere in there. Lord, help me! This is happening too fast! I know it's all a rite of passage & part of growing up, but I'm not ready! (But then again, will I ever be?)

Slow down, baby girl. I'm not ready to let you go just yet. But when I do, the world better be ready for something big! They don't know it yet, but you are about to take the world by storm, charging Hell's gates with a water gun and a sweet giggle. I love you sweet thing!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I remember those days. My son was also 15 years old when he began to learn to drive. My mother actually taught Aries how to drive. I also remember speanding many saturday mornings on my knees.

The Texan said...

Oh my gosh! I can still remember those days!!! Gosh, G'luck Liz!