Keyboarding for Homeschoolers 2nd Edition

Learning the keyboard is imperative for today's student. Take your typing course to the next level with this 34-week course. Weekly lessons follow a similar format: a classroom or group lesson (parents can read through this lesson with their children) and four daily practice lessons. Practice lessons have the student review the material from the group lesson in daily increments followed by 10-20 minutes of typing practice per day. The author recommends a simple text editor like Microsoft NotePad®, Microsoft WordPad® or Apple TextEdit® (free with your computer operating system) for practice. These programs do not include spell checkers or auto correct features that will cover mistakes and prevent the student from learning correctly.

The first weekly lesson in the textbook is critical to success. Covering the differences between typing and keyboarding, various keys, the QWERTY keyboard, correct typing posture along and more, the first week ends with a baseline 3-minute typing test. I appreciate the focus on correct hand position and sitting posture as a preventative measure against carpal tunnel syndrome. Lessons cover nearly every aspect of the computer keyboard. Here is just a sample of the skills learned: the space bar and enter key; home row, the letter keys, punctuation and special keys, shift key/caps lock key, practice with typing common words including articles, conjunctions, helping verbs, pronouns and prepositions, learning to use the numeric key pad, tabs/text alignment, typing a friendly letter or business letter, making a certificate of completion plus many others. Complete table of contents is available on our website. Keyboard shortcuts are covered in the appendix. Each lesson focuses on 3-4 letters before advancing to more complicated keys and skills which allows for mastery of material. Students needing more practice can review the practice lessons as necessary, as the suggested practice time is flexible to meet individual student needs.

A timed typing test is included with every even-numbered lesson to assess student progress. Timed tests begin as one minute tests and progress in length to five minutes by the end of the course. A keyboarding speed progress chart is available at the back of the book to measure progress.

You may wonder how this course compares to the author's Keyboarding for Homeschoolers -Summer Text? The complete content (13 lessons) from the Summer Text are repeated in this course. Additionally, this course provides more instruction on various special keys like the colon, apostrophe, question marks, brackets, tab key and text alignment, along with additional practice typing commonly used suffixes, helping verbs, pronouns, and prepositions and typing a friendly or business letter. This one year course provides more depth and practice, although some students may do well with a quick summer overview followed by time spent teaching themselves the additional keys and skills for keyboarding aptitude.

All in all, this is a fully developed, systematic typing course that will provide your high schooler an elective credit on his transcript. It is worth mentioning that the course focuses on memorization of the keyboard through practice on a covered keyboard. A mini-keyboard with color-coded keys is a recommended resource and the author has included a colored copy on the back cover to cut out and use as a reference. Whether college or workforce bound, keyboarding is a valuable skill that our young people need for success and this well-organized, easy to use course may provide them everything necessary for success. SC. 264 pgs. ~ Deanne