Easy Learning Product Review : Typing Instructor for Kids Platinum 5

Handwriting, cursive and typing,  oh my!  Personally, writing has always been the roughest part of my home school career.   If I were to confess the one subject that has given me the most headaches it would be hands down, WRITING!!!  Every step of the way, from getting my now 7 year old son to form his first letter, to writing grammatically correct sentences, has been like pulling teeth!  And now we stand , at almost the end of the 2^nd grade and next year we are expected to start cursive! Sigh….  one more battle, yippee!  BUT, this  IS the 21 century, the bar has been raised higher for our youth.  In my day, back in the 80’s we took typing in high school and the classes were dominated by females!  It was the female thing to do because we were going to be the and office workers, little did I know back in the 80’s, that this would become a very important skill to acquire!

  

Now our youths are growing up in the technology age and typing is more important than EVER!  You would have to be a fool not to realizes that computers and technology are here to stay FOREVER!  It is such an important skill to have for the next generations to come, that it is really hard for me to not agree with the Hated Common Core and giving states the option to drop cursive and to teach keyboarding instead.  My head says it is common sense, the worker of the future NEEDS keyboarding skills, but my heart, the cultured center of me, does not want to see cursive disappear out of American curriculum.  If for any reason but the fact that our founding fathers wrote our constitution in English and everyone should be able to read the founding documents.  But I am an extremely practical  person, youths need keyboarding more than they need to read old documents! IMHO!

Then I tried this GREAT product, the Typing Instructor for kids Platinum 5 ( if I did not live in the middle of nowhere, I would get the downloadable version, but my internet stinks)  And I kept thinking, “If every home had this product, we would not have to choose, my son and I love this product!”  This is a very inexpensive program that more than one child can use!  My son uses it, the boy I watch before and  after school uses it and EVEN I use it.  Let’s just say my skills need some cleaning up L  I seem to have a hard time typing without looking!  I tried many “online free programs” but I had so many problems  from having problems downloading, having to WAIT and WAIT and nothing turns a kid off more than waiting, or no real fluidity to the program.  I just kept feeling frustrated!  But this program is INEXPENSIVE!  No waiting and very fluid!   My son loves the program!  The fact that he will choose to do this program on a Saturday morning, makes me want to give it 2 thumbs up!  I have noticed a DRASTIC improvement , at 7 years old, in his positioning of his hands.  The program starts out easy with drills that can be changed given the child's age and ability, it says it is for 6 to 12 year old.  They explore an island and as they improve they open up new areas of the island.  There are games for them to play and stories to type and my son really seems to enjoy the range of music they offer. I think the music encourages rhythm.  Personally, all families should have a program like this, it is so easy and save the tough cursive for the professionals who get paid to do it ;)  Personally since I am a homeschooler, it just means that this is fun and easy and all I have left to do is teach cursive and hope that I do not pull out the last remaining hairs on my head!