I was a little on the fence about starting “typing” or any sort of computer program with Jacob this last year. I love good ole’ fashioned REAL books and paper. However, computers are definitely part of our lives. Jacob sees me on the computer every day and so naturally, he had a desire to “learn the computer”. Jacob asked and so we went for it – and, of course, The Good and the Beautiful supplied our curriculum!
What is taught in this course?
The Good and the Beautiful has three typing levels. Level 1 teaches proper posture and hand position, home row placement, all of the letters, the space bar, the semicolon, the period, the shift key, and typing words and short sentences.
What is included?
When you order Level 1 you recieve a course book and a sticker sheet. Your child will also need access to a computer or laptop that has a word processing program (we used Microsoft Word). We also got a document holder as well {to hold up the course book}. I would not say the document holder is a necessity but it definitely makes things more comfortable and convenient.
What age should I start?
Jacob started this when he was seven years old {second grade year}. This would be the earliest I would start this program. And as I said earlier, we really only started it because Jacob asked for it.
With that said though, I probably would start sometime between 7 and 9. This course is designed for individuals with no previous typing experience.
How is it set up?
This course is simple. There are 80 lessons that take anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. All you do is grab your document holder, place your course book open to whatever lesson you are on, open your word program, and type whatever the lesson prompts you to do.
The lessons get more advanced as you progress and increase in length. There are also a handful of progress checks where you can time your child as they type and then then will be prompted to type the same information another time. This was really motivating and encouraging for Jacob and he loved to see his progress. But these can easily be skipped if they stress your child.
Child Driven
One thing I loved about this course was that Jacob took full ownership of it. It was something he could completely do on his own – with the exception of the timed progress checks – and it was really great to give him that.
Final Thoughts
This course checks all of the boxes for me to teach my child to learn how to type. I loved that it was inexpensive, offline, and still fun! Jacob truly enjoyed doing this and he has progressed from zero computer experience to a decent little typer. As with all things The Good and the Beautiful, it is a very gentle approach but very effective. It’s a good reminder to me that things do not need to be flashy and in your face to be enticing to children.
We can’t wait to start Level 2!
Good for him! A thumbs up.
😊