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 Post subject: Typing
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 11:24 am 
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Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2012 3:05 pm
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Location: Central TX
How often should typing instruction be done? Twice a week?

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 Post subject: Re: Typing
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 12:19 pm 
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Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2012 5:22 pm
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Daily.

IMO, typing is like piano practice. As a matter of fact, I think they are strongly related. :) I don't mean they need to sit there and practice for 1/2 hour everyday, tho'. There are typing games online. I think getting to know the keyboard so you can type without looking is a great skill. But, who knows, by the time your kids are in high school there may only be texting! ;-)

PS. I also think "shorthand" is a good thing to know. It doesn't have to be the kind old secretaries used but a way to write fast to take notes. It's served me well over the years. Make a "t" for "the" and a symbol for "and" and a dot after the root of a word for "ing". Things like that. I only use "notehand" for very common words. Also, long words that are repeated throughout a session, say "environment" is used for a paper or lecture. I would write "environment" the first time and just use the underlined "e" for the rest of the paper.

You are far from that, tho'. :lol:


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 Post subject: Re: Typing
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 12:49 pm 
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Location: Central TX
I got Typing Instructor Platinum a little while back and we just haven't started it yet, so I wanted to start using it. It looks fun. It uses games and stuff to teach typing. I just don't know what the "normal" is for how often to do it or for how long. I didn't learn until high school, when I was in Keyboarding class, and I don't remember how often it was, but it seems like twice a week. I think it would be something they would enjoy, so maybe I could see them doing a little bit every day.

And that is great advice about shorthand, especially with Christian, since he struggles with and hates handwriting. My main goals are to have him learn to type and use speech to text, for getting his thoughts out, but to also be able to take notes on paper when he has to, as painlessly as possible. Shorthand, abbreviations, etc would really help with that.

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 Post subject: Re: Typing
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 4:52 pm 
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Yeah - I'm with Sis - we do about 10 minutes every day - much like math drill.

To me with little kids the most important things to stress are good work habits - staying focused, and saying each letter as you type it without looking at your fingers - as much as possible. I don't worry so much about speed & accuracy as I do work habits - I figure speed & accuracy will come in their good time : )

Practically speaking, I use my typing skills WAY more than my handwriting skills (which are reserved mainly for grocery lists, post it notes, and teaching DD writing!) - so I don't have any problem with teaching typing in early elementary : )

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 Post subject: Re: Typing
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 4:53 pm 
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I'd say daily also, but at his age you could probably get away with 3 days a week.. MON WED FRI.
In high school, I took typing daily for an hour each day. But that was high school!

My kids all learned to type with a computer game that kept track of how they did. They couldn't advance up to the next level until they reached the set amount of "correct" words.
Sometimes on the speed parts, it was set too high so I'd type it for them just so they could get past that part and continue with learning.
of course, this was only after having them try it themselves several times. I did step in before it got to the point of frustration for them. I wanted to keep it from becoming a brick wall type of obstacle that hindered their learning. I personally wasn't going for speed at that point, just accuracy.


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 Post subject: Re: Typing
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:44 pm 
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Location: Central TX
Ok, wow! I didn't think it was an "every day" sort of thing, so I'm glad I asked. Thank you!

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