Teaching your teenager winter driving safety begins early, before or during the learner's permit stage. Techniques you teach by doing will instill safe driving habits for a lifetime, and help create a new generation of safe drivers on our roads. Be patient, and let your teenager practice until these habits become second nature.

1. Step 1

   Wait for winter weather conditions. Not a blizzard, but not cozy, either. Pick a day when there's a good amount of snow or ice on the ground.

2. Step 2

   Control the learning environment. Choose an empty parking lot on a Sunday morning, or a back road where there's little or no traffic. If you live near a development that has a cul-de-sac, that's ideal. This will give you a safe place to practice.

3. Step 3

   Put your teenager behind the wheel. Make sure you are both belted in securely, with the belts fastened low and tight across your laps. Make sure cell phones and PDAs are turned off, so you'll have full concentration without distraction.

4. Step 4

   Have your teenager practice braking and accelerating on snow. First have him step on the brake too hard, causing a small skid. This will help him realize that braking slowly and leaving plenty of distance between his car and the one in front is extremely important on snow.

5. Step 5

   Next, have him step on the accelerator too hard, causing the wheels to spin. Repeat this until he learns the right touch on the accelerator to move the car forward without spinning.

6. Step 6

   When your teenager has mastered these two techniques, speed up in an open area and put the car into a spin. This is the single most important thing you will teach him about driving! Teach him to turn INTO the direction of the spin, instead of away from it. Do this until he learns to regain control of the car.

7. Step 7

   Lastly, put the car into deep enough snow to get the car mildly stuck. Let your teenager learn to rock the car out of the snow by changing rapidly from drive to reverse, instead of spinning the wheels and creating ice. This will take a while, so be patient.

8. Step 8

   Repeat these lessons on different days until you are satisfied that your teenager is capable of driving safely in winter weather conditions. The only way to become competent at this skill is to practice, so the more often you practice, the better driver your teenager will be.