.png)
Why Teach Touch Typing for Kids?
Jonathan loves to use the computer. He mostly plays games at this point, but it won't be long before he uses the computer as more of a tool than just a gaming device. He'll be using the computers the rest of his life, so I feel that it is important for him to learn to type properly now while he's young.
We were recently introduced to TypeKids.com. We were given a free account and paid for our time to use TypeKids and share our thoughts with you. Of course, all thoughts are mine and Jonathan's and we were not required to give a positive review.
What is TypeKids?
TypeKids is an online typing course for kids. They recommend it for children 8 years and up, but as you'll see, younger children who know how to read and are computer savvy can do well with TypeKids too.
Kids learn to type by following the story of a pirate adventure. Each lesson has multiple exercises which are broken up by the video story and the opportunity to play games. The games continue to reinforce the touch typing that the child has learned so far.
Here's the really cool part about TypeKids: It's intelligent. The program adapts to your child. The program learns for your child's typing mistakes and tailors the exercises to practice letters that he or she is having trouble with.
How to Use TypeKids
TypeKids has 30 online lessons each made up of multiple exercises. Each full lesson should take around 25 minutes to complete. They suggest 3 lessons per week, which means a child would finish the course in about 10 weeks.
We're on our summer schedule right now, so we're not doing much in our school right now. Being only 6 years old, Jonathan has a little less stamina and focus than an older child. Considering those two things, Jonathan has been typing 5 days a week and doing 2-3 exercises per day, completing a lesson every 2 days. This has been a good pace for him during a lull from regular school work. If we were doing a full school schedule, I'd probably pull him back to one exercise per day which would equate to around one lesson per week.
My Thoughts on TypeKids
I really liked TypeKids. It was fun to see Jonathan get excited about touch typing. One of his favorite movies is G-Force. He loves to pretend that he's typing on a computer really quickly and has done this for years. Unfortunately, he felt like he should be able to type faster and it took some time to get him to understand that he has to slow down and focus on accuracy before he can worry about speed. He also was disappointed that for the first few lessons he had to type gibberish and there were no words. He was much more excited about typing once he reached a point of typing real words and got really excited when the enter key was added.
I think TypeKids is a good program to teach touch typing for kids. I like that it's online. I didn't have to worry about compatibility with our Mac computers or which computer the program was installed on. I can sit Jonathan down at any computer and let him start typing.
Jonathan's Thoughts on TypeKids
Jonathan says that he likes when a new letter is added in a lesson. He also likes the videos and the games.
Get TypeKids
You can try TypeKids for free. You'll get three lessons. Oh, and no credit card or payment is required for the trial. Love that! If you like it, get a full account containing 30 lessons for $49.95. Go to TypeKids.com to get started.
Your Turn!
What do you think about teaching touch typing for kids? How do you teaching typing or plan to teach typing to your kids? Share in the comments below. Email and RSS readers can join the conversation by click over here.
Material Disclosure: TypeKids gave us the full online typing course and compensated us for our time to review the program.
