PP here. I just found out that Adult and Community Education (ACE) through Fairfax County Public Schools has typing classes during the summer for teens. We are too late for this summer but I am going to keep it in mind for another summer. They call this class, "Keyboarding," and the description is as follows, "Become familiar with the computer keyboard; locate alphabetic and numeric keys. Emphasis is on mastering the keyboard through touch typing. 10 sessions @ 2 hrs each."

We had typing in computer lab in elementary school then Mavis Beacon in middle school but where I really learned to touch type 95 words per minute was chatting on MSN for hours each evening

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is in elementary school. Still hunts and pecks, but has been exposed to sporadic online typing programs at school.

With so much work on the Chromebook, bad habits are just being reinforced. Should I force DC to practice touch-typing at home? Why isn't typing part of the MCPS curriculum?

TYPING CAMP, call up Landon School right now for their 1 weeker this summer.

I am the PP above you. I just signed up, but there is a waiting list.

Does anyone know of any others, either in MD or VA? We'll go to VA, I don't care. . .

Anonymous wrote:We certainly pushed our kids to learn to type but I think computer voice recognition will win out in the end.

Ha, at work we've been beta testing stupid computer voice typing programs for decades. They all continue to be terrible.

Anonymous wrote:DC is in elementary school. Still hunts and pecks, but has been exposed to sporadic online typing programs at school.

With so much work on the Chromebook, bad habits are just being reinforced. Should I force DC to practice touch-typing at home? Why isn't typing part of the MCPS curriculum?

TYPING CAMP, call up Landon School right now for their 1 weeker this summer.

Anonymous wrote:We enrolled both children (boy and girl) in a speed typing summer course at Landon. Best money ever spent . .

This sounds awesome. I just looked it up. There is a waitlist for beginners' typing but I just may put my 10you on the list anyway.

Does anyone else know of any other summer typing lesson programs?????????????????????????????????????

Thanks in advance.

Mavis Beacon is not a real person.

We taught DS using Typing.com. It’s free and it even has the MCPS seal of approval on the website (haha!).

It took about 2 months over the summer of about 10 minutes a day and he caught on. Then he gets to practice every day in school.

Offer up a prize when he gets through each session - Beginning, Intermediate or whatever. We did a movie theater ticket at the end of each one to keep him motivated.

I also find it super annoying that schools don't teach typing! They don't teach cursive anymore, and said it's because kids do so much typing. Then I asked why they dont' at least teach typing, so kids don't have bad habits reinforced (it's easier to learn typing correctly from the get-go than to correct poor typing once they have developed their own system.) I was told they don't teach typing because typing will soon be replaced by something else (?)
I still think that as long as they are doing so much typing, they should be taught to do it correctly. I paid good money to put one of my kids in an after school club that was supposed to teach typing, but they just had the kids playing a bunch of typing games. The problem is, no one checks that they are actually playing the typing game with the correct fingering! It was totally useless.

Yes, we can use programs at home, but kids don't take it as seriously as they would at school. If typing is taught in a class, and they have the kids' attention, it really only takes a week. Or once a week for 11 weeks or something. It's not hard to learn, but makes things so much easier.

We will reinforce at home, but please share any in-person typing classes that you thought were helpful. Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:Please share which programs you used/like! Thanks!

Typing Club

My 7 year old started using Typing Fingers. Even after just two short sessions, it's helped.

Please share which programs you used/like! Thanks!

No need to enroll in any class. There are free programs online that teach hand position. My 6yo has been pecking away for a year and has been doing well.

There's also a week long summer typing class for students at Montgomery College. My daughter did this and it taught hand position, which she continues to use. Time will get speed.