I was very big on teaching cursive with my kiddos when they were younger. Not that they are older they know that if they don't have neat writing it will be repeated. This way it just becomes habit, and it has for my kids. I think that teaching it is necessary for so many reasons.
Before that article came out I thought I was behind in teaching my kids because I was teaching my DS to write cursive and improving my DD's skills in cursive and entirely ignoring typing but the other mothers in our homeschool group are teaching typing. I did not learn typing until I was in 8th grade so I figured why teach it to my kids when they are in 1st & 3rd grade. But now I am questioning myself, should they learn typing at an early age, am I going to keep them back by not teaching them typing now?
I don't think I would say any parent is holding their child back by not teaching them typing at and early age. I think it's more important that they KNOW how to operate without technology. What if something happens and technology is not reliable? It is widely know that solar flares/storms can occur and can take out our power grids for any amount of time...up to several years. I've been thinking about our dependency on technology for a while now and I'm very excited to stress teaching my children how to do things for themselves rather than rely on something electronic based. With that said, I have found an awesome website that teaches typing for little ones and my kids love it. They are 5 and 6 and have progressed very quickly with it. I think it's great they like it and see it as a game, but it's not something I insist on them doing for the sake of learning how to type. It just fills up the part of "computer time" on the schedule on some days.
Would you mind sharing that website with me because I am at a loss at figuring out how to teach typing other than when they email their extended family!
I think it's a shame not to teach kids how to type. You can talk about what if technology fails but it hasn't to the extent that it *could*. To me it's like saying we should teach kids how to ride horses because what if we can't drive our cars. Computers have been used extensively since the 50's and 60's and as vulnerable as things are currently, it's getting better every day. I think it's important to learn to write but the fact is our world is moving away from it. My employee's rarely ever needed to write anything and it was a frustration that so many couldn't type fast and accurately. Learning to type is as important as learning to write and it was one of the requirements of the job. By not teaching your kids to use technology at an early age gives them a disadvantage when they try to learn it at a later age. I'm not suggesting you let your kids sit in front of a computer all day but they shouldn't be shielded from it, IMO. Edit: BTW, search Google for free typing games and the first one is great but it's also has lot's of ad's everywhere.
Lets throw out art, music, gym, pe, cursive. They don't seem to understand that those things are CRUCIAL in other areas of learning, at all. Reason 125698 to homeschool. And while we're at it, let's throw out learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide, because everybody has a calculator, so it's much more important to know how to solve a problem than to actually get a reasonable answer (although you have to know your math to know if the answer you get on the calculator is reasonable), and they've already thrown out spelling, and agriculture and shop and industrial arts, and home ec (they've already fouled up home ec beyond all recognition). After all, those classes and the business classes (typing, bookkeeping, business English...) were the classes that actually prepared non-college-bound kids for a real job right out of high school. And grammar is probably in line next to be thrown out, at least in the form we're all familiar with. Use the grammar-checker on your computer, for pity's sake! I mean, everybody knows it's more important to express yourself freely than to dot the i's and cross the t's and eliminate the dangling participles and split infinitives! Antiquated rules of spelling and grammar have no meaning for society today! Wait, I seem to recall hearing something like that a few years ago..... oh, yes, it was the SIXTIES!!!!
"I think it's a shame not to teach kids how to type. You can talk about what if technology fails but it hasn't to the extent that it *could*. To me it's like saying we should teach kids how to ride horses because what if we can't drive our cars. Computers have been used extensively since the 50's and 60's and as vulnerable as things are currently, it's getting better every day." I don't think anyone is suggesting not teaching kids to type. My comment was "I don't think I would say any parent is holding their child back by not teaching them typing at AN EARLY AGE." I didn't say anything about not teaching them to type at all....To make the comparison to learn to ride a horse b/c we may not be able to drive our cars is not in the same context as the point I was making about technology possibly failing. People survive just fine without the use of transportation...at least those that know what to do when they don't have it. Keep in mind that just because the worst hasn't happened doesn't mean that it won't. You don't have to teach your kids to know how to think for themselves or to know how to complete a task without the use of electronics, but I certainly will teach mine. With the knowledge that technology is vulnerable to things outside of our control I don't want my children to have to depend on anyone or ANYTHING to think for them. They will not be mindless sheep. They will know how to perform math, read, write a letter by hand, grow food, make clothing and anything else that is necessary to live a fruitful and productive life. At the same time they will have a developed understanding of technology and how wonderful and useful it is. LEECEE, google Dance Mat Typing. It is a BBC website. The kids will love it!!
