Dance Mat Typing

I bookmarked this site some time ago and finally got the chance to check it out in a bit more detail. I have been using Keyboard Climber with my 1st graders to help them learn where the letters are on the keyboard. They love it and it's been a great starter site. Click here to see a previous post.

Dance Mat Typing from BBC School is listed as being an introduction to touch typing for children aged 7 - 11.  I really like it as the next step as it takes keyboarding to the next step.

Kiddos work through 4 levels each of which is divided into 3 stages. Here is what Level 1 looks like:

Stage 1: f d s a j k l ; g h - home row

Stage 2: e i

Stage 3: r u

To see what each of the other levels entail click here.

  On the left you can see screen shots of several of the pages in level 1. As you can see in the last screenshot, kiddos are already practicing whole words not just isolated letters as they move through level 1.

I'm excited to have my kiddos try this site. I still plan to start with Monkey Climber but am thinking I will likely introduce this site around January.