My 7 yr old needs to start learning how to type (I know it is young compared to when we learned.)
My son is having to do some of his homework on the computer and I was wondering if anyone had a program that they would recommend for teaching typing. Thank You!
All my kids (now 18 to 24) learned to type in elementary school, I think the program was called "type to learn." I believe they did it in second and third grade.
Have you asked the teacher? Just shoot her a quick email and find out what the school offers, or if they have programs they recommend.
At that age, I just let him hunt and peck. It does take a little time for him to learn a QWERTY keyboard layout, but they figure it out if you give them time and that is necessary before he can really learn to type using more than 2 fingers. My kids learned "keyboarding" at school a little later - starting around 4th grade I think.
(FWIW, my kids also do plenty of printing in school, and they also learn cursive starting in 3rd grade. Kids can learn more than one way to form written words. It's not either/or.)
I would ask the teacher what the school is doing in this area. If they are requiring students to type their homework, they should be helping them with the typing.
My oldest is learning this at his school. He says it's boring, but we just reminded him how my we use our typing skills every day.
At our school, during the language arts portion of the day, children go to a program called "Paws in Typing Town" to practice. I am not sure if this is available for the public.
This is just a part of the curriculum. Cursive writing starts late in 2nd grade 2nd semester and is a major part of 3rd grade curriculum.
I would not be pushing him.
My son, who is 7.5, 2nd grade, is learning cursive and is working on his printing in his cchool. I am not supportive of any extra 'screw time' inckudibf tyoibd our answers to questions.
His school does not offer typing (small Montessori). They are more about 'classical education for learning, printing, and cursive.
The only thing is that they now require him to do some computer homework which includes a bit of typing the answers.
I don't know which program I will chose but I figure it is better then the hunt and peg method.
There are many typing programs you can download that are similar to what we used to use in the olden days, lol. My sons started taking some typing lessons in elementary but not at 7, more like 3rd grade and up.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sites-teach-kids-typing-fun/
#7 is abcya and both my kids love the games on there, they are fun and its easy to pick your childs grade level so they leanr but are not overwhelmed by difficulty
#8 is the typing dance party which i have seen being used in my childs first grade class (which is 6 and 7 year olds)
My friend's son's class all learned in school - I'll see if I can find the website for you. You might want to check with the teacher - often they know of good ones, that the kids may later use and that way it would be familiar to him.
We used something called Keyboarding without tears at one point - we had done the handwriting program which was really successful.
My kids' school uses a program (or maybe it's a website...I'm not sure) called Typing Agent. Might be worth looking into.
I would ask his teacher how he's supposed to do this because even when it was taught in school it wasn't taught until Jr. High, 7th grade, and then it was just part of a semester. I really didn't learn how to type well until I was an adult and found that I liked typing. I still type a lot of words per minute and am almost always perfect. I taught myself.
I think his teacher should be aware of this. She/he should be aware of online programs he can do where it's more like a game that he gets credit/scores if he types correctly. This will make it more fun for him and less work. It will also become second nature to put his fingers where they go.
No one teaches typing anymore, they call it keyboarding now. It's always part of their computer classes.
Gee when we were 7 we were working on printing and cursive writing.
Just 10 years ago our son did that in 2nd and 3rd grade.
I know many schools don't teach that anymore.
At the very least she needs to be able to sign her name to be able to write a check when she's an adult.
There are some who think spending significant time in front of a keyboard while young results in some muscular developmental delays - kids need more time on the playground.
They have their whole adult life to sit in front of a screen.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rae-pica/just-say-no-to-key...
