christian keyboarding (a TOS review)

 

 

Filling your student’s mind with God’s Word using typing skills.

--Christian Keyboarding

 

 

Um, love that!

 

 

So what is Christian Keyboarding you might ask.

 

 

The Nutshell

• Christian Keyboarding is an award winning e-book program which is focused on developing typing, computer and character skills.
• Christian Keyboarding was developed by Leanne Beitel who noticed a gap in the area of Christian based typing curriculum.  Read the whole backstory here. 
• Some topics covered include:  Alphabetic Keys, Cover Pages, Personal/Business Letters, Envelopes and more.
• There are several different options:  Keyboarding Package Deal ($22) and the Homeschool Package ($27).  Keyboarding for the Christian School Elementary ($12.95) is geared for grades K-5th while the counterpart Keyboarding for the Christian School ($15.95) is aimed at older students in grades 6th-12th.  There are also options for the private school venue. 
• A special 20 percent off code just for you: SUMMER2012 Expiration: 8-29-12

 

The Review

 

Heeeeey,

 

 

yaaaaa’ll…

 

 

I’m SO old that I learned to type on a…

 

 

TYPEWRITER!

 

 

Ding!

 

 

Did you like my little stand up routine?

 

 

:: wink ::

 

 

Boy have things come a long way since then though!  Today I don’t just type…I type on the virtual keyboard on the face of my iPad!  Nutso!

 

 

And even though my children have already self taught themselves their own version of typing skills and are waaaay more tech savvy than I can ever hope to be…

 

 

I still want them to learn proper finger positioning.  And other necessary computer skills that I had to learn in the school-of-hard-knocks-and-mondo-typos.

 

 

So I was really excited about digging in to Christian Keyboarding…

 

 

We tried it two ways. 

 

1)  By opening two screens.  Christian Keyboarding and Open Office Word.  As pictured below.

 

 

 

2)  Not pictured.  By uploading it to DropBox (you also need the new FREE Abode app) and using the iPad as our “book”.  For us the iPad was MUCH easier.  If you don’t have an iPad or other e-reader device…you can always print the book out.

 

 

Because my kids really needed to start at the beginning, we didn’t get to sample some of the more interesting stuff.  There are lessons that teach you how to use various programs on the computer to create letters, headers and address envelopes.  We were kinda stuck in the less exciting “ffffff jjjjjj” zone.  There are really limited ways to spice up learning proper finger positioning.  Sorry kids, it’s just practice, practice, practice!

 

 

Overall, I really like the meat of this curriculum.  Especially in some of the later lessons where there are picture tutorials on using programs.  That’s great stuff!  I like that Scripture is intertwined into the lessons. I just found myself wishing there was some way to make it interactive?  Maybe something that tracks errors and speed and such.  Again, I really think this is a great program with great material…I just think it needs to be updated into a more interactive format. 

 

 

But why take my word for it?  Give some freebie lessons a whirl and see what you think for yourself!

 

 

…danielle

 

**This is my little space to disclaim that I was given an Christian Keyboarding e-book package in exchange for my honest review shared on my blog.  All opinions expressed are my honest own.  I hope that you enjoyed and found my review at least a smidge helpful.  Because my voice is just one, I highly encourage you to visit this link and read what my fellow TOS Crew friends thought about Christian Keyboarding.**