Customer Reviews

Typing Instructor For Kids - Version II [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this title because the first Typing Instructor For Kids got such good reviews. I was looking for a way to teach my 8yo son keyboarding. He has always had a terrible time with handwriting. I knew I needed really easy, slow-paced typing instruction for him, or he wouldn't get it.

Well, it's 6 months later and he can now type! We did it with nothing but this software. I made him practice about 10 min/day 5 - 7 days/week. All in all, he found it to be work to learn this new skill, but still rather enjoyable.

There are 11 games included and several of them are very good -- meaning they are really fun AND build typing skills at the same time. There is also a series of drills, lessons, and typing tests to teach the keyboard. The keyboard is introducted a few keys at a time, and then you repeat the related drills, lessons, tests, and games until those keys are learned fairly well. I had to require my son to keep repeating each section of the keyboard until he could do it at 15 wpm before letting him go to the next section. This is what the software recommends, but I had to learn it the hard way. At first, I let my son go ahead too fast and he ended up getting overwhelmed. I ended up having to put a sticker chart on the wall and offering him prizes for getting to 15 wpm on each section.

I would recommend this software for children from 6 to about 11. The cartoon characters are very juvenile and would probably offend a child any older than that. However, for any adolescent or adult able to ignore the juvenile cartoons, this would be an excellent way to learn to type too. I found that my typing skills improved just by occasionally using this software.

It is targeted for ages 7 and up; however, my 4 1/2 year old is not about to be left out of the fun so we let her try it. She typed at 3 words per minute on her first try. We've had this computer CD for 4 days and my 8 year old is typing at 10 words per minute. Even mom and dad are using it. Dad has always done hunt and peck so he's learning the keys and I'm using it to increase my speed.

It has lessons that won't allow you to move on until you reach 15 wpm and 90% accuracy but you can bypass the wpm. I don't recommend it because it will slow down your future progress. It can be hard for a child to type the same section over and over until he reaches 15 wpm, but it is well worth the effort. We found a way to reward our son for just sitting down to practice even if he doesn't advance to the next level.

There are 11 games, 40 stories, 30 challenges, saved results, etc, etc. The program story revolves around the typist being on an island, moving from one land to another, until he finally gets to the castle where he becomes the ruler and can defend it and play new games.

I've never come across such a thorough program. The program has won 7 awards. Included in every lesson are hands superimposed over a keyboard so the typist knows where the keys are without looking down. You can look up test results to see which hand or finger needs more practice.

This is a fun program!

I got this software from Office max. which is on sale for $8 on last week.
My 6 year old kid, start learning typing and he keep saying he want to type all the time.

Pros:
Settings are awesome.
You can choose two types of keyboards
You can choose your words per min speed and many other aspects
You can choose 4 different musics or do not have any.
You can choose the difficulty levels.
Games and encouraging things for kids.

Cons:
Still needs to find one.

How does it matter about cartoon chars speaking to you,
Adult can also learn from this CD, just by skipping cartoon talk.

I bought this program for my 11 yr old granddaughter and she has very quickly learned the keyboard. I wanted her to learn the correct way to type before she developed bad hunt and peck habits. So much homework now requires typed reports. She had fun with it. It's a great program!!

I bought this product because the reviews were so complimentary. However, this product is not meeting our needs. The pace is too quick and my son (8) is permitted to move before he has really mastered the lesson. I am able to set the Words Per Minute higher but once he reaches that he is given another 4 keys at once. Although it seems he has mastered the lesson, only his short term memory has learned anything and any long term muscle memory has no chance to develop. Also, there is no way to go backwards and repeat a lesson to review so I have had to make my own worksheets in MSWord to cover keystrokes he is not competent in. This is a fun game for him after his normal keyboarding lesson but I will no longer use it as his instructor.

My 7 year old daughter loves playing with this typing instuctor game. It tracks her progress so we can see her accuracy and her speed in the days or weeks to come. It shows the child in an easy an accurate way finger placement. I think there is up to 11 games to play, but we haven't gotten that far yet.

I am only giving it 4 stars instead of 5 because we haven't gotten through the whole thing yet. Love it so far!

not a bad typing program for kids. it keeps my kids interested for about 15-20 minutes a day. they complain about all the practice pages for the games...but , hey! it's a typing instructor! you gotta pratice! once they start playing, they have fun.

I bought this for my four girls. They all love it, and are learning lots. But the quality of the graphics, characters, and even theme (or story) seem to be low budget. We have a lot of other educational computer games which are just fun for even me to watch (and play). The overall quality in our other games is much higher. It is a lot like comparing Disney cartoons to Speed Racer.
BUT...my oldest, who is 11, still enjoys this program and has not complained about anything I write about here.

My nine year old daughter wanted to learn to type. I read the reviews of the available products and purchased this one. It was the right choice.

She is enjoying working her way through the games, improving both her accuracy and speed as she goes. This game, er, instructional program gives immediate feedback on both. She is very excited when she beats her previous score.

This seems like a better way to learn typing than the class I went to in high school in the 1970's. Back then, we had to listen for the bell to tell us when to hit the return bar. Now our kids can learn with fun games anytime they want, no bell and no return bar. No messy ribbon either!

we homeschool and have 1st grader, 4th grader and 7th grader - they are all using the program and learning and enjoying - my 1st grader especially enjoys the fact that it's on an island since he's all about pirates. a great first program.