We remember when penmanship was a very important subject in school.  The teacher stood at the blackboard, directing us to make perfect round circles.  We would dip our pens into an inkwell that sat in a hole on the desk.  The ink stained our fingers every time.  We used a little blotter to take off the excess ink that so the carefully drawn cursive letters would not smear.  But, no matter how hard we tried our circles never looked as perfect as the teachers.  Who invented cursive writing, anyway? But it is a good thing that the teacher kept us focused because it is deeply imbedded in our psyches to stick with something until we get it right.   That training has come in handy on many occasions  in our lifetime and was in fact,  the impetus for our creating Keyboard Town PALS; a software product teaches kids to type on a computer in an hour.  Today, children express their thoughts without ink without pens or pencils and without frustration.  In fact, our circles no longer matter as we have progressed from inkwells to computers.

Playing Make Believe

Have you ever watched children play “make believe”?   Have you noticed how absorbed they become?   Psychologists say that this type of play is very important for a child’s development.

Should parents join the child in this imaginary world?

Most parents want their children to grow up to be productive adults functioning in the real world.  We want our children to eventually let go of  “make believe”  and give up their imaginary friends.  It is therefore important to include children in your conversations and activities.   However, it is not as necessary for you to intrude upon your child’s imaginary world.    Let them have their own private place but remember to try to include them in your interests.

One way to help your child successfully navigate the adult world is by teaching them the life-long skill of keyboarding. The best way to teach children how to type easily and quickly is to use the Keyboard Town PALS,  LEARN TO TYPE software.  Visit www.keyboardtownpals.com for more information. They will always be grateful.

My mother was a wise woman who taught us that if you did not verbalize a concept then it did not exist.  For example we were never allowed to say ‘nervous’.  So even if I was concerned about an upcoming test or a job interview, I could never us that word.  Another forbidden word was ‘jealous’.  In our family, jealousy was considered an awful sickness.  We were expected to be genuinely happy for the good fortune of others.  So you will not have to be nervous any longer about your kids learning to type or jealous of other kids who know how to type if you get your children started on Keyboard Town PALS software today. Relax, it’s a life-long gift!

What is the specific quality that we admire in a good soldier? Is it just that he is obedient and follows instructions?   There must be something more to learn from the behavior of the obedient soldier because if it were just that he follows orders without question then we could have an army of robots.  It has to be something deeper than just obedience.

Could part of it be that we admire his ability “to do what needs to be done? “   And is that different from saying that he “does what he is told to do?”

Ask any soldier who is given an order and he will tell you that he certainly is following those orders but more importantly, he is applying his training to successfully fulfill those orders.   His job “is doing what needs to be done”   with no room for excuses.

How do we train our children to respond as the soldier does and “to do what needs to be done?”

We, as adults, are doing things all day long that “need to be done”.   Many of these chores are daily chores.  One prepares food only to see it eaten. One makes the bed only to see it messed.  One washes the clothes only to see them get dirty again.   We knowingly work in the morning aware that our efforts are torn down by night.    Are we crazy? No! This is the behavior of the good soldier or the good mom.  To raise good adults, children must practice adult behavior and do things asked of them for no other reason other than they need to be done.  Be prepared and expect your children to come up with excuses why they can’t.  You will not be doing your child any favors if you allow them to indulge in childish, self-centered behavior.  Be strong in the knowledge that you are “raising a child to be a mature adult.”

One thing that today’s child needs to do is learn to type! Thank goodness for Keyboard Town PALS that has taken the drudgery out of learning to type.

Which has been your experience?  Did you spend a semester or an entire school year learning to type? Or perhaps you were never taught proper technique and were just left to hunt and peck?   Did you try on your own to learn to type?  Did you use one of the programs on the market only to give up?

For those of you who did learn how to type in high school, it is definitely one of those few courses that you are using daily.

In today’s society there is more than a need for learning how to keyboard.  Knowing how to keyboard properly is a must for school and later in the work place!   And I think we would all agree it is a skill that is needed to be learned way before high school.  Furthermore, it is a shame to waste precious school time on teaching a subject over a year or more when it could be taught in a couple of sessions in the computer lab. Yes, there is such a program.  Keyboard Town PALS “Learn To Type” not only accelerates the learning to an hour but it also is age appropriate for children who all need to be keyboarding properly at a very young age.

Keyboard Town PALS is entertaining using puppets, music, humor and association to teach.  Not only is it entertaining for them, but in a few minutes of watching the video they will be typing real words!  In just one hour they will know the location of the 30 letters and symbols on the keyboard!  Nothing is more encouraging or builds self esteem than seeing results.

When someone sits down to type, ones hands and fingers become a tool through which ideas flow.  Their fingers glide quickly and easily across the keyboard since there is no searching for keys.  Of course, this is only true for those who have learned how to keyboard properly.

Now try to imagine how distracting it is to try to type your thoughts while you are hunting and pecking.  Not only will searching for correct keys to press slow you down, but you may forget many of your thoughts as your head is bobbing up and down looking for a letter or symbol.

Wouldn’t it be best to learn the skill of keyboarding the correct way from the very beginning?  Keyboard Town PALS can teach your child and will help them achieve this skill.   PALS (Purposeful Associative Learning System) program is developmentally appropriate.

Give your child a skill for success with Keyboard Town PALS!

Would you put your teenage child behind the wheel of a car without prior instruction or training?   Of course you would not.  In order for your teen to be allowed to drive, he/she has to enroll in a Driver’s Ed course, pass written tests, take an eye exam and demonstrate his/her ability to handle a vehicle and drive safely. You certainly would not think it acceptable to let him/her figure out, on their own, how to drive and at some later date try to instill good driving habits.  So why do we allow young children to begin working on a computer without proper instruction? And shouldn’t the proper instruction begin with the keyboard which is the portal to the computer itself? Being taught how to navigate the keyboard properly is the first step.

The problem is that typing programs were developed for a different age group (high school students) and for a different purpose (learning a marketable skill).  However, in today’s society all children are expected to keyboard at a young age.

Is there a product that can teach young children to type automatically that is age appropriate, fun, fast and easy?  If the goal is for the child to stop focusing on the mechanics of typing (hunting and pecking) and be able to concentrate on expressing their thoughts and ideas, then the younger they are trained to type using the correct fingers  the more likely it is that they will write creatively.   That is why Keyboard Town PALS is a great tool for teaching keyboarding.

Keyboard Town PALS focuses on the concept of teaching keyboarding at an age appropriate level and has developed a program that reinforces reading readiness skills.

So before you let your child type their first paper, make sure they’ve had Keyboard Town PALS to teach them the skills!

As an adult, have you ever found yourself driving from home to pick up the kids at school and you don’t remember the drive over? That is because driving is a psychomotor skill and driving to a familiar place has become automatic. When you are behind the wheel and you see a red light ahead, you don’t begin to consider all possible options. You automatically put your foot on the brake because your brain and your muscles have been trained to stop when you see a red light.

Typing is also a psychomotor skill.  A child who has been taught to type (Of course, using Keyboard Town PALS) doesn’t search for the correct keys to press. His/her fingers just fly across the keyboard because typing has become automatic and the child is then free to concentrate on words to express ideas and not on the mechanics of typing.

Give your children the life-long gift of learning to type and this psychomotor skill will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

If your children are still able to type up a paper and turn it in on time, it shouldn’t matter how they typed it, right? No! Although turning in an assignment cannot prove in what manner the paper had been typed, there are still many excellent reasons as to why your child should learn to type on a keyboard properly.

One of the most important reasons to learn to keyboard properly is health reasons. Have you heard or wondered why so many people are developing carpal tunnel syndrome at much younger ages? It is very possible that it is due to improper keyboarding.

Hunting and pecking is a very common trait of children learning how to type. Although this can get the job done, this is what is leading to wrist pain and could possibly lead to carpal tunnel. Using only two fingers to type on the keyboard can strain the hand and wrist.

Learning to keyboard properly should be done from the very beginning of teaching your children to keyboard. The younger children learn the proper techniques, the less chance they have of developing health issues in their hands and wrists.

Hunting and pecking is for birds, not kids!

Isn’t it interesting how we use words and phrases all time and we don’t really pay attention to their meaning. For example, what do we mean when we say we are “raising” our kids? I think we would all agree that to “raise” something is to take it from one level and get it to a higher level.  Higher than what?  Anyone who has had children  will testify that the natural state of a child is to be self absorbed.  From the first moment of birth children are programmed to let parents know that they are uncomfortable in some form or matter.  And they are not programmed to take into consideration the circumstances of anyone else around them.  It takes years for to realize that they are not the center of the universe.  I think it is fair to say that we , as parents,  are trying to  ”raise” our kids to tone down the self and make room for others.  Ironically, being less self absorbed results in a more contented and balanced individual.

P.S.   You can raise your child’s level of scholastic performance by teaching him/her to type using correct fingering. The easiest, fastest and most enjoyable way to do this is to purchase  Keyboard Town PALS software that teaches the location of the letters and the keys on the keyboard, in an hour.