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I have become aware over the past couple years that many parent-teachers are turning to typing games as a resource for improving typing skills in a homeschooling environment. As such, I wanted to share a few words with any parents/teachers about this practice and try to shed a little light on why this is valuable and how to best use the various typing tutors, games and tests available on the Internet.

First of all, let me point out that typing skills are a very important aspect of most homeschooling curricula. Unless you are preparing your child/students for a life working the land or to pursue a very specific craft, learning how to use a computer properly is an important skill to develop. Typing proficiency is particularly important for anyone who will be doing any degree of writing on the computer, which is hard to avoid. The difference between a hunt-and-peck typist who is capable of typing 25 words per minute and a trained touch-typist who can type anywhere from 50-100 WPM means an efficiency factor of 2 to 4 times. And while not all things should be measured in speed and efficiency – certainly there are things worth doing slowly and carefully – being able to get your computer work done quickly leaves so much room to do other things away from the computer, so it’s definitely a skill worth cultivating.

Before working with games, you may first need to establish a foundation, and this is best accomplished through a typing tutor of some sorts. There are all sorts of options out there, from very basic to advanced and everything in between. You also have the option of on-line typing tutors which can be played anywhere with Internet access, or software you download that can only be used on your home computer.

Now that I have established the importance of learning how to type and developing strong typing skills, let me remind you that games are one of the most effective ways to learn since they are so engaging and encourage students to keep playing. Kids typing games are often developed with that purpose in mind: providing a fun learning environment that keeps students coming back. So these can be valuable resource once the groundwork has been laid.

As with most things, the key to using typing games as part of a homeschooling curriculum is moderation; you don’t want your kids to spend all day sitting in front of a computer playing games. However, allowing them to exercise their keyboarding skills with a little gaming is a great way to compliment your use of typing tutor software and an effective way to improve their typing abilities.