I often get asked what I do for keyboarding for young children. My personal opinion is that the software available is random and full of animation, a great way to practice, but not a great way to teach.

When I teach keyboarding, I introduce it in grade one. That gives kindergarten lots of time to learn mouse control and pick out the letters they might need for their typing. But by grade one, children often need to create longer texts.

Usually I ask the kids if they have watched their parents work on the computer. Then I ask if they do the flying fingers (with fingers on the home row and all fingers being utilized) or if they do the peck and point method with 2 fingers.  Then I ask if they would like to be the fastest on the computer or slower. They all want to be fast when they grow up...

I explain about home row, with the pointer fingers living on f and j. They can feel the little bumps on the keyboard so their finger can always tell if they are at home. Then the tall finger lives on the d and k, the ring fingers live on the s and l, and the baby's have a and ; for their homes.

From kindergarten on, children are all familiar with making patterns, so the keyboarding just gives them one more chance to practice making patterns. I teach them how to find a paper on the computer to make their pattern (opening up a new Word document).

The first pattern row is:

fff jjj fff jjj fff jjj fff jjj and so on. They learn the space bar is used by the thumb on either hand. They try to keep their fingers from jumping up off the keys; and I help them remember to keep their bodies ergonomically supported. This sets them up for success.

Then they do a row with capital letters with the CAPS LOCK.

FFF JJJ FFF JJJ FFF JJJ

The next row is for the tall fingers:

ddd kkk ddd kkk ddd kkk ddd kkk

DDD KKK DDD KKK DDD KKK DDD

And so on for the ring and baby fingers.

I have this pattern typed out for them to use as a visual. We do this for about 10 - 15 minutes of our lab time every day. When they get faster, they breeze through this page so quickly and graduate on to the second page (a different color). They now begin the row above home row.

They have to learn to keep all their fingers on home row and reach up for the letter they need.

rrr uuu rrr uuu rrr uuu

and so on.

Last page is the challenge page, using the letters in the basement. Again, they keep their fingers based on home row, but they have to reach down for the letter.

vvv nnn vvv nnn vvv nnn

It's amazing how proficient they are at keyboarding just from this consistent attention to the home row in this one year. By time they start grade two, they are really confident about typing and by grade three, when keyboarding is scheduled to be taught, they do not have ingrained bad habits. In fact, many parent helpers, and other teachers, have used this method to improve their own keyboarding skills!