Kid in the Country Part I or Preteen Driver's Ed

In the country, we teach kids how to drive young.

Give them a few years learning balance on a two wheeler and in trees. Once these skills are mastered....

Graduate to small engine operation, making it as rewarding as possible, maybe a small allowance.

Once the young person shows common sense and the desire to advance, a vehicle with a larger engine can be introduced. Once the trainee has mastered forward, reverse, turning both left and right and can avoid running over inappropriate objects.......

..... stick him on a small tractor. Teach him to operate a large, spinning auger and have him dig a bunch of huge post holes, under supervision of course.

Tease him a little by letting him ride along on the big tractor and assist with digging the neighbors out of the snow. (Snow we had, that we really weren't supposed to have, according to our realtor two years ago,.... ) moving on,

Let him ride along with my cowboy, in a back hoe, digging big holes in the dirt, ripping out tree stumps, creating much noise....

demonstrate the tremendous power of an engine.

get him excited and get that adrenalin pumping, make him crave driving!

Make him want to drive so desperately that he is willing and eager to operate the ranch tractor successfully weaving between many small trees.

All of this preparation and training, so that he eagerly starts up the tractor to pick up and dump loads of horse manure for his Nana (me).