As everyone who happens to either own or use a computer knows, typing is an extremely useful skill. Sure you could hunt 'n peck your way around, but to really get your thoughts out fast, you need to know how to type.

Somehow my youngest picked up on typing very rapidly and only partially utilized the "hunt 'n peck" strategy. (Figured she must've picked it up via osmosis.) My older two children didn't use any correct finger placement, nor did they desire to.

Then of course, there's me...I write all the time and live through my keyboard. I naturally wanted my children to learn how to type, but I hadn't found the right program. I didn't want "fluff" and I didn't want "boring". I just wanted something simple and straight to the point.

Enter the following review product, Keyboarding for the Christian School by Leanne Beitel. This program arrived just in time to satisfy my pickiness every requirement. (I love it when that happens!)

Keyboarding for the Christian School is an e-book program that teaches the touch typing technique. The lessons and drills are reminiscent of my old high school keyboarding classes, which I always enjoyed. There isn't anything "fluffy" or "silly" about these e-books at all; just straightforward, honest typing. Perfect!

The e-books come in two versions: K-5th grade and 6th grade and up. However, there is little difference between the two as far as learning the basics and practice drills. In fact, the only difference (at least through lesson 32) was that the elementary version contained color-coded home row keys and the upper level did not.

Now as the title suggests, this program was originally designed for Christian schools. Therefore, you'll find various verses and Psalms included throughout each volume for typing practice.

Both versions contain timed drills (which we really liked!), formatting and enumerated lists. The upper grade version also covers topics such as:

• Writing a bibliography
• Personal and business letters
• Proofreader's marks
• MLA and APA academic reports and more

Keyboarding for the Christian School--Elementary Version contains 87 pages and is available for $12.95. The upper grade version contains 107 pages and is available for $15.95.

However from now until February 28th, the publisher is offering a great package deal: Purchase BOTH e-books for only $22.00! Not too shabby, I say!

Final Thoughts:

We used both e-books over the past several weeks and really enjoyed them. Granted, my oldest still isn't too keen on the whole "keep your fingers on the home keys" but I know it's helping her in the long run. Also, my younger two have noticed that their fingers naturally gravitate toward the home row keys without even thinking about it.

For additional practice, I had the children update their blogs each week using the correct finger placement. (Sneaky, eh?)

While I personally would have never even thought to cover such things as a properly formatted bibliography, I was glad to see that at least someone was!

Thank you, Leanne Beitel for creating such an easy to use program.

We give both versions of Keyboarding for the Christian School two delighted thumbs up!

Product review by Denise Dooley-Opper, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, February, 2010

Editor Note: This review was originally written as a part of our CREW team and can be found in its original format on the author’s blog here:
http://chaimommy.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-christian-keyboarding.html

Here's another review:

Keyboarding for the Christian School is a book meant to teach touch typing and basic word processing. As the cover states, it is written specifically for teens in Christian schools and/or homeschools.

My twelve-year-old used this book. We both liked the ample readability of the font and the actual text supplied for practice-often Bible texts or inspirational passages. In later lessons, Beitel included screen shots from Microsoft Word XP. I appreciated the author's thoroughness in addressing useful and common correspondence format, commonly used proofreader's marks, and two specific report styles. Each of these represents a vital skill, and each is soundly handled.

Additionally, timed tests are supplied-something I'm sure we all remember as part of our long-ago typing classes. I didn't enjoy them when I was learning (who did?), but they've proven useful for me, as they have for my pupil in this course. While we didn't use the grading chart, I can certainly see that others would find it helpful.

My only complaint about Keyboarding for the Christian School is that the book itself is sort of clunky, for lack of a better term. Unless you have an adequate book stand and the space in which to use it, you would likely find it easier to use pages copied out of the book and pinched into a document holder attached to the computer screen. As there was no copyright statement printed in the book to address copying within a family or home school, or an extension of the copyright to the owner of the book, I attempted to contact the author via her publishing house in an effort to obtain permission to copy pages for my eldest to use in the manner described above. I did not receive a reply.

I found this book to be solid in format, instruction, and material used as samples. My son isn't fully convinced of the need for good form in keyboarding, but he's getting there as we've revisited some of the concepts he learned. I recommend Keyboarding for the Christian School.

Product review by Carrie Wilbur, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September 2007