I was recently given the chance to review Keyboard Town PALS. I was actually looking forward to this review because DS8 will likely have to communicate by typing, rather than writing. He has some shaking in his hands that makes writing difficult for him.
The Keyboard Town PALS website promises:
- NO speed timed tests
- NO counting mistakes
- NO grades
- NO delete button
- NO boring drills or endless exercises
-
Keyboard Town PALS Learn to Type program teaches your child to type in one hour.
After we got the account set up, DS8 tried it out. The program is basically a series of 8 short videos going through the different keys that each finger is responsible for. When DS8 logged in, the first video started playing, and it just played one video after the other until it had gone through all 8 videos.
Instead of teaching typing by the usual a-s-d-f-j-k-l-; method, this program assigns each finger to the appropriate series of letters. It then tells a story based on the letters that each finger is assigned to. See the cute characters below?
These characters represent the puppets that are used to tell the stories of the houses and streets that they live in. You can see some demos here.
What did DS8 think? Well, he didn’t seem to be overly eager to do his typing; however, he didn’t complain. He seems to be doing fairly well on his typing, too.
What did I think? Well, I must admit that I found the stories to be a little annoying. Fortunately, DS8 was happy to wear his headphones while doing his program. Also, the website claims… “Keyboard Town PALS Learn to Type program teaches your child to type in one hour.” The one hour comes from the length of time of all 8 videos put together. Like anything, typing takes practice. While the initial instruction may take 1 hour, repetition of the program and practice to achieve mastery takes much longer than 1 hour. I think that the younger set might like the stories, but the older part of the target age may find the stories too young for them. I would recommend letting your child watch the demo to make sure that he will like it.
Pertinent Information:
- Product name: Keyboard Town PALS
- Price: $39.95
- Age Range: Target age 7-10. Available in English, Spanish, and French
- Read other reviews on this product on the Crew Blog Page.
FTC Disclosure: I was given a 6 week trial of Keyboard Town PALS for review purposes as a part of the TOS Crew. Although I was allowed to try this product free of charge, my opinions stated above are my own and not influenced by anyone.
Mindy B says
I enjoyed your honest review. Thank you. I am now following you too!
Naomi says
Thank you, Mindy! I just can’t post something that is dishonest.
Lisa says
Great review! We had things that we liked and disliked about it as well.