One of the most underrated skills that any child can learn is now available from anywhere in the world.
No, it's not mindlessly surfing the internet!
It is touch-typing.
I learned to touch-type while I was attending high school in the 7th grade. However, there were no classes. I just found a program from the library and took it home with me.
Actually, the only reason I did it was because my older brother, Paul, suggested I train this vital skill. If he hadn't, I probably would have fallen into the trap Patrice Oneal hilariously expresses in the video clip below:
[*WARNING: He occasionally uses words that some might find offensive.]
In case you didn't watch the clip, he made light of the fact that when he was younger and saw other children learning to touch-type, he made fun of them.
He thought it was a useless skill, unless you wanted to be a secretary.
Now (or at the filming of the clip) he finds himself in a world where everyone else can type so things like messaging are quite a struggle. He writes, "Hello," and the other person responds in a few seconds with a full-length essay!
He's exaggerating, of course.
The point is not being able to touch-type leaves a serious gap in being productive, creating opportunities and just surviving in this digital age.
In my experience, it has saved hours upon hours while writing my:
- homeschooling book;
- homeschooling journal;
- any homeschooling quotes; and
- just with getting ideas out of my head onto the screen.
However, anything that I can write more quickly because of my ability to touch-type is secondary.
What lies underneath all that is quiet confidence!
The quiet confidence your child will gain from learning to touch-type will spread to many other areas of their lives. More than you might imagine. They don't need to be an author or a programmer or necessarily directly use touch-typing as the primary activity of their profession/business.
But just think about all the emails and messages they will send over the course of their lives. Or if they are writing a diary or journal how it will help to organize their thoughts and express themselves more succinctly.
These are just a few. There are more.
And they all stem from the confidence of being able to type words on a screen quickly and without looking!
Not to mention it's fun :)
You can't go wrong with Typing.com - it's free which is always a bonus!
I also recommend checking out Typesy. There are specific packages for:
- small homeschooling families;
- large homeschooling families; and
- homeschooling co-ops.
Within each there are modules for adults and children of all ages, so it's quite interactive; much more so than the bland 90s program I used!
You can involve yourself with your child's participation as much or as little as you'd prefer. Like always though, less is more.
Mick.