Typing Courses:
- Peter's Online Typing course... This is the best option I've found for a good, free beginning typing course, complete with color-coated illustrations showing children where to place their fingers on the keyboard. It does require Adobe Flash Player (a free download).
- Good Typing... This is another option for a free, web-based typing course. It has 27 guided lessons to learn step-by-step from the beginning. There are no required downloads, just a required free registration. You can sample the first lesson without registering though. You can also check your typing speed on this site.
- After trying both of the two links above (since they're free), I decided it was worth it to buy a more kid-friendly typing course so I ordered Typing Instructor on Amazon. My six-year-old likes it.
- Learn to Type offers interactive exercises to help anyone's typing skills.
- Kids Learn to Type is a section dedicated to simpler and educational typing exercise content for kids, customized to your child's grade level. They do have to register (for free) too, but no personally identifiable information is required.
- Tots Typing has some typing practice sentences with a cute corresponding picture to the side. They also have a slider puzzle game, word search, and maze game.
- Free Online Typing Games to practice your typing skills with 10 original games.
- Colorado LLC Attorney offers a list of resources to improve keyboarding skills with fun typing games as well as practice tests & lessons. A girl scout named Jenna found this resource and wanted me to share it , so here you go! Thanks Jenna!
- Free Typing Games This website has games, and free typing tests with a printable certificate. Kids may like the games, although they look like they were made in the 80's. :) I'm unimpressed with the typing test because the site can't keep up with my typing speed so it's only "showing" what I typed about a line behind when I typed it (meaning if I make a mistake on line 3 I don't know it til line 4 and the entire line is then considered in error). The games seem to lag a bit too, so it must be something with the site. But if your kids aren't super fast typers (I type about 90 wpm) then I imagine it'd keep up enough to not affect their scores on the games.
- Keyboarding Resources has a nice long list of games & tutorials divided up by beginner, intermediate & advanced levels. (Scroll down the page a little then you'll see all the links.) This link was actually emailed to me by a peer mentor group of kids who found this post and wanted to contribute to my page by sharing their other favorite typing resource page. Thanks guys!!
Computer Literacy:
- Apple Camp... Free summer workshops where kids learn how to make great stuff on a mac! Over the summer, your kid could make a movie, create a photo slideshow, write and record a song, put on a show for everyone, and have a blast doing it all. At Apple Camp, kids learn how to do cool stuff on a Mac and discover their hidden talents along the way. Apple Camp occurs at every Apple Retail Store, and each free workshop lasts three hours. Recommended for kids ages 8-12.
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