“It’s all right. Just try it again. Let the clutch out slowL-L-LY,” I stuttered as we jerked forward several times. The engine died, and we rolled back farther.

“Brake, brake, brake,” I continued. “You can do this. Just relax.”

Bonnie seemed a little nervous when she saw the pickup truck behind us.

I put my hand up in the air and waved him around us.

Teaching your teen-age daughter to drive her new five-speed, green Mustang convertible sounds like it might be fun for about the first five minutes. Then you realize knowing how to drive doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to teach someone else how to drive.

I also humbly realized she was probably a much better student than I was a teacher. So I went to get some help.

Wrecks, lies and videotape

In Kansas, 15-year-olds need to log 50 hours of driving with their parents behind the wheel before they can drive alone to and from school or work.

I went on the Internet to see if there were any tricks of the trade to help us get through the first few hours.

I quickly found there were several sites that were willing to sell me instructional materials, including books and videos on how to teach “collision-free driving.”

Collision-free driving sounded like the best kind.

There was one site that sold a device that’s almost like an airliner’s black box it records whether your teen is following the speed limit and telling you the truth.

Called the AutoWatch, it’s offered by DriveHomeSafe.com, which is based in Salem, Ore.

It’s sort of like having a tattle-tale in the car at all times.

Some of the items it checks: Was the driver going too fast, racing or over-revving the engine? Did they drive directly home? When were they driving and for how long?

The device comes with software for a Windows computer system. You can download the information from AutoWatch into your computer and then print it out.

The cost is $295, plus shipping.

The Web site also offers videotapes and booklets, as well as free online information.

Driving with mirrors

Another site I found carried a product called “Driver Ed in a Box.”

It provided a textbook, 17 videos, audio tapes, a student workbook and special mirrors in a brown box. The mirrors were to help you watch your teen’s eyes to make sure they’re checking for traffic and checking around them as they drive.

The kit was designed by a driver’s education certified teacher in Houston, who has 25 years in the education/driver training field.

The kit costs $179 and is available at www.driveredtraining.com.

Finding the key

Somehow the thought of trying to figure out how to hook up a black box to my daughter’s car or going through 17 videotapes and a 300-plus-page textbook and installing special mirrors seemed a little excessive.

I kept looking until I stumbled onto some sites that indicated I might just need some basic understanding on how to teach.

I found I needed to limit each lesson to one or two concepts each time out. Rather than try to teach a lot of information all at once how to steer, brake, check the mirror, shift into each gear, etc. we needed to slow down a little.

Our brains need time to absorb one or two concepts each time.

Fortunately, I learned, I really hadn’t made too many mistakes our first time out.

We had started in a parking lot, as recommended, and went over how to start the car, how to let out the clutch, how to steer to the right and the left and how to brake.

The difficulty had started when we left the parking lot and adding more information, like hills and traffic.

I found another driver education teacher had come up with a concept called the “grab point” in teaching how a clutch operates. When you let out the clutch slowly, nothing happens, then the clutch starts to grab slowly, then more and more until the engine stalls.

The next time we went out, we focused on that and she even got it into third gear in the parking lot.

Losing the keys

“I don’t think you’re ready.”

“Come on, Dad, just around the neighborhood.”

“You froze up and killed it when you had a car behind you last time.”

Despite my objections about driving the Mustang in traffic, her mom took her out. And they reported some good news she was doing much better at intersections.

But that was bad news for me.

We were gaining a new driver. So my days of getting to drive my I mean her new Mustang to work are numbered.