TeachYourChildToTypeThisSummer < Kitchen

Carolyn mentioned that she wants Ben to learn to touch-type this summer.

Turns out it's easy to teach touch typing; you don't need a book or a software program.

Just use highliters to color in this chart, show your child where to put his fingers on the keyboard, and have him type the alphabet.

And that's it. He doesn't need to type anything other than the alphabet.

Here's a small version of the color chart you'll make.

A large version of this color chart is here.

I picked up this tip yesterday from Faye Gordon, business teacher for BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) here in New York state. BOCES handles vocational training, quite a lot of adult ed, and special ed.

Faye runs the Office Skills class, where she teaches her students to type using this method.

She happened onto it when she graduated from college and applied for a job that required typing. She was rusty, and typed only a slow 60 wpm on the test.

So she went home and practiced typing the alphabet for the next two weeks. She didn't practice all day long, just a few times each day. Always the alphabet. No text.

When she went back for a second test she typed 80 wpm.

All of her students learn to touch type using only the alphabet.

A couple of years ago Faye saw a headline on Consumer Reports for an article on how to improve your typing speed.

She bought the magazine, and it turned out their big advice was to type the alphabet.

"I could have written the article myself," she said.

+ + +

update

The whole time I was growing up, my dad kept telling my sisters and me, 'Learn to type so you can support yourself in case anything happens to your husband.'

I probably type about 110 wpm.

update 2

Barry G just left this comment & I had to pull it up front:

My mom told me the same thing. In fact, she said learn to type and I'll buy you a typewriter for graduation (from high school; this was in the days when not every kid automatically got a car). So I learned to type and she bought me an Olympia typewriter which I still have. The first job I got out of college was at the U.S. EPA, as a typist. (Jobs were scarce then). They realized I was good at other things besides typing so I made my way up the ladder. Yes, I work at USEPA now, but I had a stint in the private sector for a while. Not as a typist though. But I do think better at a keyboard than writing longhand. I recommend touch typing for all.

I love it!

update 3

I just showed Ed Barry's post, and he said his mom did the same thing.

She told him if he learned to type, she would get him a typewriter for high school graduation.

He did, and she did.

She got him a Smith Corona portable electric typewriter that lasted all the way until we got our first KayPro back in whatever year that was.

He wrote his dissertation on the Smith Corona.

FreeWorksheets
TreadingWater

SummerSupplement
SummerSupplementTime
SummerSupplementTimePart2
SummerSupplementTimePart3
SummerSupplementTimePart4 (resources for kids who have fallen behind)
SummerSupplementTimePart5 (resources for preventing summer regression)

SaxonPlacementTestsAndGuides
SingaporeMathPlacementTest

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-- BarryGarelick - 22 Jun 2005

What a great story!

I'm putting that up front!

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Jun 2005

Interesting. In my high school years, it was the girls on the secretarial track who learned to type. I avoided learning to type, and so hunted and pecked for many years. I taught myself to touch type only a few years ago, and I still don't do it quite right.

Of course, touch typing is a much more widely used and useful skill now with the advent of the Information Age.

I think better on the page than on the computer... mainly because I draw a lot of pictures.

-- CarolynJohnston - 22 Jun 2005

Does Ed still have his Smith Corona? Us Olympians felt superior to all other brands, but I think Smith Corona is respectable. Much better than Royal, and now I've offended all the people who swear by Royal typewriters. But a Kay-Pro computer? Wow; that takes me back. Our first computer was a used one, made by Xerox when they thought they would get into the PC business. It was a CP/M computer and I dearly loved it. My wife hated it, so we bought a PC. THis was before Windows, so all software was DOS configured. THe leading software package was WordPerfect^?, which to me is like the Olympia of word processing software.

-- BarryGarelick - 22 Jun 2005

OH MY GOSH.

WordPerfect.

What would I give to still be using WordPerfect?

Can you even get WordPerfect for a Mac?

I should check.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Jun 2005

I don't know if he still has the typewriter.

I'll ask.

What I really want in life now is a wiki with full word processing capacities.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Jun 2005

I think my friend Jennifer The Mac Guru is still using WordPerfect!

-- CarolynJohnston - 22 Jun 2005

I still use Word Perfect. I like it a lot better than Word. Uh-oh. Now I've done it. There's going to be a Wiki page on Word Perfect vs Word!

-- BarryGarelick - 22 Jun 2005

Oh boy.

You are giving me serious envy.

Jennifer uses WordPerfect?

Really?

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Jun 2005

I think so. She did until quite recently. I'll check.

-- CarolynJohnston - 23 Jun 2005

Uh, so what you're saying is you both like Word Perfect better than Word, correct?

-- BarryGarelick - 23 Jun 2005

I don't use either one, I use OpenOffice^? on Linux.

-- CarolynJohnston - 23 Jun 2005

WebLogForm
Title:	teach your child to type this summer
TopicType:	WebLog
SubjectArea:	FromTheKitchenTable, OffTopic, TipsAndTricks
LogDate:	200506211722

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