Sunday, October 10, 2010

Talking Fingers! TOS Review


"I can read, I can write, I can type, whatever I say!"

In this ever increasing technical world it is becoming more important all the time for our children to learn typing skills. I have been seeing this even more lately with having family living far away that my sons likes to communicate with online. Unfortunately many typing programs available are not exactly fun for kids, but we have been given the opportunity to review a perfectly kid friendly typing program called "Read, Write, and Type" by Talking Fingers. "Read, Write, and Type" is not only fun, but it teaches typing, phonics, reading, and spelling. All wrapped up in a fun and exciting online game made just for K-3rd graders. When we were first chosen to review the program I signed up Sweetpea to use it thinking it was mainly a learning to read program. She does enjoy it, but finds the typing a bit hard since her hands can't quite reach all the letters. Typing Fingers was very generous to us and allowed us to add additional children as well, so I was able to set Buster up with his own account. I find the typing instruction perfect for him, even though the reading portion is very easy for him. It starts out simple teaching the proper typing of one letter at a time, and slowly builds as you add letters. Buster is now in level two, and typing short sentences with three letter words. I'm even more excited that we have access to "Read, Write, and Type" for a full year. We will really be getting some good use out of the program. I think I will have Sweetpea try it on my laptop since the keys are a bit closer together.

"Read, Write, and Type" Is set up to have separate log ins for parents and students. When the students log in they go directly to the screen you see above. Here they can go directly to where ever they left off in the game. When parents log in they can track the progress of all students assigned under their account. Students are even given grades, and parents can view what level they have made it to.



"Read, Write, and Type" can be purchased as an online program, or as a CD. For individual home use prices start at $35 for one year. Talking Fingers also has a program called "Word Qwerty" available for older students, or you can buy both programs as a bundle.

Pros:
Fun
Great value
Multi age
Multi Skill
Cons:
I honestly can not think of any
For more reviews visit the Homschool Crew Blog
"Read, Write, and Type" was given to me free of charge from Talking Fingers in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

3 comments:

Monica said...

We loved the program too. I couldn't find any cons either. I just had to watch my 5 yr old so she did not type with one finger ... dropping by from the Crew.
Monica

Vickie said...

Great post! Good idea to use a laptop with the keys closer together for those smaller hands/fingers. Thanks for the idea!

Tiff said...

That looks neat...I do need to start Durin on some basic typing, I think.