Typing Instructor for Kids Platinum 5

I spent an extensive amount of time reviewing available programs and settled on this one! We are homeschooling and I actually bought this program (Platinum version for Windows) for my 1st grader. He is pretty adept at computers (for his age) so I figured "no time like the present to start learning proper keys"! He REALLY likes it! It progresses through exercises that address both accuracy & speed and you set your own goals. You can pick a variety of different background music-(if you want any - my son likes the jazz!), and it has great graphics with a super variety of different games & adventures that are very fun and challenging - lots of different ways to learn! -------- As an Adult I have enjoyed challenging myself on speed/accuracy to see how high a score I can get. You can choose to work on specific keys/rows/combinations/numbers or even 10 key-right side #s. OR, you can go to the story area and work with real words/paragraphs/stories. Lots of bells and whistles so there was a bit of a learning curve figuring out the extent of what you can do with this program, so my only negative would be wishing the instructions were clearer. But hey, my 7 year old can figure it out so I'll blame that on me (user error)! --- As an FYI my 5 yr old loves to get on and play the games even though he is not using the right fingers on the keys - so, know that it has definate entertainment value!

I bought this program for my kids, ages 8 and 10. It works like a video game in which players travel around the lands of Typer Island and participate in exciting adventures. The adventures include: 1. The Old West: Players learn the keyboard "home keys" as well as proper finger placement in the Old West 2. On the Water: Players learn more letters and numbers while racing a Viking ship 3. In the Air: Players learn typing rhythm in an exciting space adventure 4. Over the Edge: Players climb a mountain to gain speed and dexterity 5. Under the Sea: Players battle sea creatures while mastering challenging keys My kids enjoyed playing the games, but after a week or so I had a hard time getting them to play. My 8-year-old son had a hard time mastering certain levels, so he reached a point where he could no longer move forward. My 10-year-old had no problems mastering each level, and her typing speed improved greatly. Overall, I think this is an excellent program. It's difficult to get kids to stick with any instructional program, so I don't think my son's problems were due to anything other than his being a boy. I would recommend this product to any parent who wishes to give their kids a head start in their keyboarding skills.

This is supposed to be the Platinum version but the dial inside was the Gold version. The program introduces letters for typing 4 at a time. Is easier for young learners to begin with 2 at a time but this is not an option. It only sends them through the lesson once and if they don’t select repeat immediately there is no way to repeat it without creating a new student user. The games are interactive and good for practice but you can’t get back to lessons once starting a game unless you finish the game or close out the program. Small things that are not terrible but could have been better thought through. A review said this would work for Mac but once it arrived the required systems clearly notes it is for Windows systems only. I have both so I was able to work it out but not what I wanted. This gets one start because it is not the version that it was supposed to be and because the introduction to characters is too many for young learners. Meaning in order to teach well, I had to use a different program that introduced 2 characters at a time and once the set of 4 was learned I could go back to this. Otherwise it is frustrating for students.

This software has been very instructional and fun for my kids. I have two sons ages 6 and 7. They are adept at using touchscreen and using the computer in general. I received this software on June 6. The kids began using it on June 13. Today they are able to use all the keys on the keyboard and have begun learning the shift keys. They began with the typing speed goal of 5 words per minute. This goal can be changed to help even adults start to improve typing speed. The kids will not be able to advance to the next level until they achieve the preset (by the parent) wpm goal. The software has typing games to help the kids gradually learn the finger placement for new letters as well as full word typing. My boys can type up to 20 words per minute (average of 12-15 wpm) after one month of using this software! I now have them typing book reports to utilize their new skills. I am very happy with what they've been able to accomplish in such a short time and they spend less than an hour about 3 days a week playing on the program. They enjoy it and it is not a fight to get them to practice. I highly recommend this product!

I have two major issues with this program. One is that my son cannot go back to practice a previous lesson, easily. They should be able to go back to the home keys lesson and every other initial lesson where they are being introduced to the keys. There should be some sort of lessons list that is a readily accessible part of the main menu. (There is a process to going back to the home row lessons, as I have recently discovered. You have to go to the map room, select maps, then select the globe, then change the lesson plan. The game mentions this in the "tour.") The other thing I did not like is that there should be transparent hands, and keys, to guide and remind the child where to place their fingers in all the beginner lessons. Seriously, everything else would pale in comparison and I would be giving this thing 4 stars if it were not for the program lacking this essential feature. My son did the first few lessons (home row) on day one and then the next day he was not able to go back to be reminded of where to place his hands. He had no additional guidance. If I had not printed out a keyboard guide for him, he would have had to look down at the keys to see where to put his fingers, and looking down at the keys is exactly what I try to discourage when teaching typing. After not being able to go back to the most basic lessons, he lost interest and so did I. So he basically used the program for 2 days. It was not until recently (a year later) that I figured out I can change the lesson plan and that information was not easy to find, but thank you Google! The game is not easy to navigate. For example, when you want to quit a challenge and click on "exit" it takes you to another pop up with 3 options - results, repeat and resume. You have to click "results" which takes you to the results screen and gives you 4 more options - explore isle, settings, more challenges, and repeat. If you click explore isle, it takes you back to the challenges screen and from there you can go back to the "Island." That is way too many steps. So the menu runs circles around itself. This can be overcome with some practice, of course, but it is certainly overkill and confusing at first. There needs to be a navigational button for "Lessons" in the main menu...I cannot stress this enough. There are a few things I do love about this program, though. I love the clarity and simplicity of the graphics, which enable the game and every screen to load quickly. I REALLY love that you can quickly skip any section where the characters are talking at any time. My son was loving the program, to be honest, until he found no way to go back and the hands disappeared. We are trying it again in the next few days, so I will update as to how it is going at a later time.

Learning how to type seems to be important even for young kids these days. This program does a decent job with teaching kids to type, *but* it works a LOT better if you use the correct settings for the age of your kid. In the map room (one of the first places you'll be sent when you start the program) there is a globe. CLICK THE GLOBE and pick the settings that best match the age of your child. The default is ok, but if your kid is 7 with very little prior keyboard knowledge (and hands that tire easily), they will definitely appreciate the shorter lessons, which are about 1/2 the length of the default lessons. The games don't go significantly slower with this setting, but they do start with smaller words. Also, as someone who has a kid who gets frustrated easily, I strongly recommend that kids should go to Explorer Isle BETWEEN lessons on the main island and practice the keys they already know before adding new letters (its the little island to the left of the main island in the primary navigation screen). The games on Explorer Isle won't add any new letters ahead of where the child is on the main lesson plan, and you can repeat lessons there as well (which is good, as you apparently can't "back up" on the main island). Personally, I think its really important for kids to get a really strong grasp on the initial keys they know before branching out to newer keys (and at least for my kid, this consequently leads to much less wailing of "I can't FIND IT"). You can also some drills by row there if you like there. As for the games, if you have a young kid, you might want to be nearby in the begining to help out with the backspace key and/or the pause button. If the goal is to teach kids to keep their eyes glued to the screen and not look down at their hands, pausing occasionally gives them a chance to *feel* for the bumps on the keyboard versus frantic eyes-down hunt-and-peck when they feel they're running out of time (the early games sometimes do go unreasonably fast for newbies). After a while, centering hands on the keyboard will come naturally, but its not fair to expect a young kid to be able to do it automatically. ******* Addendum #1: Important note for Explorer Isle: There are "Lessons", "Challenges", and games on Explorer Isle. The "Lessons" on Explorer Isle have a helpful on-screen keyboard which shows hands hitting the correct keys with the correct fingers. The "Challenges" on Explorer Isle are done without the keyboard, proving whether or not your kid actually know the correct keys. There are LOTS of both lessons and challenges. Personally, I make my kid demonstrate she can do the "Random Word" *challenge* after each segment where she receives a new set of letters in order to prove she can comfortably use those letters before moving on to new segments of the main island game.

I bought this for my grandson to learn to type . His friends all learn to type while playing the fun typing games on it. He learn to type at the age of 8 .

I got this on a whim on a lightning deal. One of our summer goals for the kids (10 and 8) was learning to type the "old-fashioned" way so in other words, without looking at the keys and hunting and pecking. When I tried this software, I was impressed with the graphics and the way it kept a log of progress. I personally thought it was pretty fun. The kids were less impressed. They were used to an online program that their school had been using- I think it was called dance mat typing. They kept asking if they could do the online school program instead of this Typing Instructor software. I gave this 3 stars because I think for the price, it was a good program. But I won't get much use out of it if the kids are not interested.

Compré este programa para que mi sobrina de 11 años aprendiera a escribir en comptuadora pero la adaptación del programa al idioma español es pésima. Tanto los diálogos como los ejercicios están muy mal adaptados y la distribución del teclado no se puede cambiar a español. Además, si retrocedes en las lecciones, no puedes volver a la lección avanzada a la que ya habías llegado. Mi sobrina se frustó con el programa y lo dejó de usar por lo mismo que el programa no la dejaba avanzar en ciertas partes.

The program worked for the first two lessons then had big issues with lesson 3 which even with online support from the seller. I returned it and was given a full refund by the seller. Amazon is first class with refunds.