Best Kids Typing Program For Mac
Today typing has become a necessary skill for everyone. It is not important whether you are writing a document or an email, a good typing speed will always help you to finish your works quickly. Typing plays an important role for people who work with computers everyday. In olden days type writers are the only source to learn typing but today we have plenty of applications to learn typing more faster than before. Those applications are generally called typing tutors. So today we are going to see the best typing tutors for Mac OS X.
- Best Typing Program For Kids
- Best Free Typing Program Kids
- Free Typing Program For Kids
- Best Kids Typing Program For Mac
Typing for Kids Course - Learn to Type Computer Keyboarding Adventure Video Game (Ages 6+) - Better than Books, Tutor Lessons, or Instructor Program (PC & MAC) by SimplySTEM by SimplySTEM Unknown Platform.
Typewriting is same for all the operating systems except some changes in the command buttons. So you don’t want to worry about learning through Mac OS. Also Mac OS has got some beautiful and efficient applications to learn typing quickly. The ultimate aim of typing tutors is to reach the level of touch typing. It is nothing but typing without seeing the keys on the keyboard. Typing Tutor software or app will have levels of lessons to get expertise with typing.
It is calculated based on the typing speed of the person that is how many words he can type per minute. So let’s have a look at the list of best typing app for Mac OS X.
Typing Master is one of the famous typing tutor for Windows operating system. It helped many people to learn typing in a very short span of time. The lessons in Typing Master application is very simple to understand and you can see the difference in your typing with in a day you start practicing. So it is one of the most recommended software to learn typing from your Mac. It is a light weighted application which will not occupy more memory or slow down you Mac. Also price of the application is based on monthly and yearly basis. You have separate plans for schools and corporates. You can have look at the price details on the website. (Download Typing Master)
Ten Thumbs is also one of the best typing tutors for Mac. If you have used Typing Master in Windows and want to try something new on your Mac you can go for Ten Thumbs. It is featured in CNET as one of the best typing app. Ten Thumbs is also available for Windows and Linux. There are two different versions of Ten Thumbs available. One is a standard version and the other one is a classic version. Features and price makes the difference between these two versions. If you have two different operating system or multiple computers you can buy multi-user version to save your money. (Download Ten Thumbs)
Typetrainer4mac is a multilingual typing tutor for Mac OS. It is quite different from other two applications we have discussed above. The user interface is very simple and easy to understand. Even people who don’t have much knowledge on computers can easily understand and learn typing through this software. It supports wide variety of custom and system keyboards in the application. One of the unique feature of this application is by using .RTF files you can manually add more typing lessons to the software. Separate logs will be maintained for each sessions. (Download Typetrainer4mac)
XType is an addictive typing tutor for Mac. It has the most advance lessons to learn typing through Mac. It includes two different typing languages English and Arabic. So if you are interested you can learn Arabic typing too. To practice expert expert level of typing they have included fifteen extremely difficult lessons in this app. These lessons will be highly challenging and will train users to become experts in typing. Totally there are fifteen levels, level 15 will be like a final exam, so the 14 levels will train user to achieve perfection in their typing speed, finger positions and much more. (Download XType)
Typist is a free typing tutor application for Mac. It is a very simple application which helps you learn touch typing. If you don’t wanna spend for typing tutors initially you can go for Typist, learn some basics of touch typing and if you want to improve your typing speed further you can choose any of the premium application from the above list. It is not important that you use free software or premium software, all you need is consistency. Typist is one of the best application in free typing software or app. So you can give a shot before you buy the premium ones. (Download Typist)
These are the five best typing tutors for Mac OS which helps you to learn typing easily and quickly. Please let me know if I have missed any of your favorite typing tutors for Mac. Try these apps in your Mac and share your experience with us in the comment box. Thanks for reading.
Best Typing Programs for Kids 2019 - Software and Lesson Reviews
We spent about 10 hours evaluating typing software for kids to find the best program. During our testing, we considered how each program teaches children correct finger-to-key movement across the entire keyboard as well as how entertaining and motivating the software is. Based on what we found, Typing Instructor for Kids 5.0 is our top choice for kids typing software. It takes young typists on an adventure to capture a castle, which they do by gradually improving their typing speed and accuracy. This software has more than 100 lessons and a staggering 30 typing games to prevent boredom.
Best OverallTyping Instructor for Kids Platinum
In Typing Instructor for Kids 5.0, children try to capture a castle by improving their typing speed and accuracy. The program’s entertaining games and quality instruction make it our top choice.
Best ValueBest Typing Program For Kids
Mavis Beacon Keyboarding Kidz
Mavis Beacon proves yet again she’s one of the best typing teachers out there with this inexpensive, child-friendly program.
Best for SchoolAll The Right Type 4
All The Right Type 4 has more than 300 lessons you access solely online. According to its website, the program is used by in more than 50,000 educational institutions.
Product | Price | Overall Rating | Price | Lessons & Drills | User Options | Progress Reporting | Number of Lessons | Number of Games | Initial Skill Assessment | Multi-Level Play | Correct Posture | Online Subscription Fee (Monthly) | Number of Users | Minimum Suggested Age | Virtual Typing Tutor | Create Custom Practice | Audio Dictation | Graphs | Achievement Certificates |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Typing Instructor for Kids | View Deal | 4.5/5 | 4.2 | 5 | 4.7 | 5 | 160 | 30 | ✖ | ✓ | ✓ | $6.95 | 5 | 6 | ✓ | ✖ | ✓ | ✖ | ✓ |
Typing Quick & Easy | View Deal | 4/5 | 5 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 5 | 52 | 8 | ✓ | ✓ | ✖ | 1 | 8 | ✖ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Mavis Beacon Keyboarding Kidz | View Deal | 4/5 | 4.2 | 4.7 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 260 | 10 | ✓ | ✓ | ✖ | 20+ | 7 | ✓ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | |
Mickey's Typing Adventure | 4/5 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 3.9 | 5 | 160 | 7 | ✓ | ✖ | ✓ | $6.99 | 5 | 6 | ✓ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | |
All the Right Type | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 2.5 | 4.7 | 2.9 | 5 | 300 | 31 | ✖ | ✓ | ✖ | $8.95 | 1 | 8 | ✖ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
UltraKey 6 Personal License | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 2.5 | 3.8 | 5 | 3.4 | 160 | 1 | ✓ | ✖ | ✓ | $19.95 (yearly) | 8 | 6 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Garfield's Typing Pal | View Deal | 3.5/5 | 2.5 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 3.4 | 57 | 2 | ✓ | ✖ | ✓ | 1 | 7 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Best Overall
Reasons to Buy
Reasons to Avoid
Typing Instructor for Kids 5.0 takes your kid on an adventure while teaching them to type quickly and accurately. With 160 lessons and 30 games, it's a comprehensive program your child will genuinely enjoy.
Tobo Typer and Lafitte the talking parrot act as tutors, teaching your child the premise of every game and lesson and encouraging them toward the ultimate goal of capturing the castle. Supplementary features, including adjustable fonts, personalized word-per-minute goals and room for up to five players, round out the software. You can even change the sound that plays when your kid hits an incorrect key – a fun addition most typing software lacks. Along with the fun games and features, it includes basics like speed and accuracy tests.
Typing Instructor for Kids shows you in-depth data about your child’s progress by finger, hand, key and row. If they are doing well, you can print out certificates of achievement so they have tangible rewards. Typing Instructor for Kids is effective, but more importantly, it's fun.
This software works on both Mac and Windows operating systems. If you run into problems, you can contact tech support by phone or through the manufacturer’s website.
Best Value
Reasons to Buy
Reasons to Avoid
The colorful, animated Mavis Beacon Keyboarding Kidz is a fun way for your child to learn to type, and it‘s also reasonably priced. Mavis Beacon has clear, concise instruction and encourages you child throughout each lesson.
Keyboarding Kidz is compatible with both Windows and Mac computers, and you can purchase it on a CD-ROM or as a digital download. Mavis Beacon covers all the basics and includes beginner lessons that explain how to type using each hand. However, there are also timed typing tests for kids who are more advanced. This software stands out because it has more than 300 lessons and can host more than 20 user profiles.
The program’s 10 games have a variety of themes, including outer space, road racing and even a shark attack. They all work the same: type fast and accurately to win. Your child can choose either Mavis, a girl, or Dex, a boy, as their typing tutor.
Best for School
Reasons to Buy
Reasons to Avoid
All The Right Type 4 has more than 300 lessons, and you purchase it as a monthly subscription. Also, you access this typing program solely online, so you don’t need to download anything. All these things contribute to it being the best kids typing program for classrooms.
The software’s typing lessons take place on a campus of sorts. While its graphics aren’t amazing, they also aren’t cartoonish and childlike, so older children will still find the program engaging. Kids navigate the online campus to find timed typing tests and more than 20 multi-level games, all of which help improve their speed and accuracy. Teachers can also create individualized lessons for their students.
If something goes wrong, you can access tech support via email or phone or watch video tutorials to find answers. This is unconventional typing software, but it is worth checking out.
Best for Young Kids
Reasons to Buy
Reasons to Avoid
Mickey’s Typing Adventure is made by the same company that produces our top pick, and it has all the key features of the best kids typing software.
In this program, Mickey and his friends have been enchanted, and it’s up to your kid to master typing to save them. At each level, the software introduces a new key or row, and your child saves a new character when they master it. A virtual typing instructor helps students learn hand placement and healthy typing posture.
The inclusion of Mickey and his friends makes the software feel more youthful than others we reviewed, and we worry that the Disney magic might wear on older kids. All the program’s writing samples are pulled from Disney films and stories as well, so there’s no escape from the theme. While we think the software’s enchantments will appeal to younger users, the developers don’t recommend it for kids under age 6. Up to five people can increase their speed and accuracy using Mickey’s Typing Adventure.
Best for Music Lovers
Reasons to Buy
Reasons to Avoid
Typing Quick & Easy teaches students to type to music to build rhythm. It includes over 50 tracks, but it’s missing some of the more common features we found in the software we tested.
For example, there’s no virtual typing tutor, and words of encouragement don’t pop up during the lessons. Also, Typing Quick & Easy doesn’t have as many games as programs like Mavis Beacon Keyboarding Kidz. Still, it includes all the critical features we looked for like word-per-minute goal customization and plenty of stories and passages to practice on.
Based on our testing, we think this product is best suited to older students. Although it’s easy enough for a young child to navigate, the software’s no frills, music-based training might suit a more mature audience a little better.
One upside is the program only requires a one-time payment of $14.99, making it the cheapest software we reviewed that you buy outright. However, only one person can use the software – unlike other programs, you can’t create multiple user profiles in Typing Quick & Easy.
Why Trust Us
We recognize that technological literacy and skills are more important than ever. To give your children the head start they need, it's important they learn how to type quickly and accurately while they are young. The better your kids can type, the better they can communicate. Typing skills give your children an advantage in school and set them on the right path in today's competitive job market.
Keyboarding classes are offered to students entering high school, but why wait? Public and homeschool children alike need correct and consistent instruction to learn proper typing technique. Letting your child loose on a keyboard can encourage improper posture and poor typing habits, which may be tough to break later in their life. Typing software specifically for kids establishes a structured and engaging space that motivates your child to learn.
How We Tested
We spent about 10 hours evaluating kids typing software and even used some of the programs ourselves. As we compared the programs, we considered the number of lessons and games they have as well as if they have basics such as timed typing tests. In addition, we noted if they teach how to type on other keyboards like a 10-key numeric pad.
While we consider testing serious business, we also had a little fun. In our evaluation, we noted how high-quality each program’s graphics look, how fun its games are and whether it gave us encouragement along the way. Taking user reviews and YouTube video tutorials into account, we favored more intuitive programs that don’t require you read a user manual to get started.
As your children learn to type quickly and accurately, they also learn to communicate more effectively. Programs with engaging games and awards help kids of any age learn to type properly without making it seem like drudgery. Typing software gives children a chance to learn typing techniques, proper posture, language skills and the joy that comes from independent learning.
What to Look for When Shopping for Typing Software for Kids
Lessons & Drills
No matter the target age, typing software for kids should start with the basics of proper finger placement and movement. The best software begins with lessons focusing on individual fingers and each hand. After your children learn proper finger placement, the remaining lessons boost their accuracy and speed. Keyboarding drills, timed typing tests, and engaging, multi-level typing games all reinforce the skills taught in each lesson.
The best lessons move gradually by focusing on a few keys at a time before building to letter chains, words and sentences. This can take a while, so it's important for software to have fun games to keep kids typing and practicing their new skills. The best software teaches children about good posture and proper hand and wrist positions while typing. This can help avoid future problems with carpal tunnel syndrome and various neck and back ailments.
Features
Because each child learns differently, it's important to find typing software that gives you the reigns as a teacher or parent. Each program lets you customize features like challenge levels, word-per-minute goals, timed lessons, typing tests and more. Some kids keyboarding programs let you create custom practice material that allows children to write their own stories or practice with text from their favorite books. Features like this make learning easier and encourage your child to interact with the software. Other engaging features include audio dictation, keystroke sounds and virtual guide hands over the keyboard.
Beyond interactive features, the best software rewards your child for hard work with pop-up encouragement and printable certificates of achievement. These can help kids stay motivated and give them a sense of progress while learning how to type.
Progress Reporting
Real progress will be obvious when you watch your kids type, but progress-reporting features are essential to really measure how well they are doing. Words per minute (WPM) and accuracy scores are common metrics on progress reports, but some reports break these down further and produce data for each finger, hand and key.
Best Free Typing Program Kids
Help & Support
Free Typing Program For Kids
At minimum, typing software includes a user guide or manual explaining how to use the program. Many keyboarding programs target home and school use, so you can find information online via FAQs and technical support. Email and telephone support are best for further questions. Some keyboarding programs have in-app support containing indexes, definitions and guides to using the software.
When Should Kids Start Learning How to Type?
Typing is an essential skill that everyone needs to learn. Whether you’re typing up a paper for school, sending an email, posting an update on social media, or even drafting a report or memo for work – all of these require you to know how to type, so it makes sense that parents want their kids to learn this valuable skill as soon as they can.
And while young kids are sponges when it comes to learning new things, there may be a benefit to waiting until your child is between 7 and 10 years old (it can vary, depending on the kid) before introducing them to typing. While the task itself isn’t tough, there are myriad reasons – physical and intellectual alike – why kids should put off learning to type until they are this age.
Physically, kids younger than 7 lack the fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination or finger span to be able to touch type efficiently and effectively. Developmentally speaking, control over the body first starts with core muscles and large motor skills, then moves outward and becomes more fine-tuned over time. This is the same reasoning behind not putting your child in violin lessons before they turn 7 or 8. Kids can tinker with typing when they are younger, familiarizing themselves with the concept or keyboard layout, and it may help them improve their motor skills, but it’s best to wait until they are at least 7 to start teaching kids how to type in earnest.
Best Kids Typing Program For Mac
This age also lines up with when children are learning to better express themselves using written rather than spoken language. Another reason to wait is screen time. If you’re concerned about keeping your young kids away from too much screen time for as long as possible, it’s best to wait until they’re older for typing lessons.