I've never run into the situation where Latin was all that necessary in my adult life but there is one class that I've never regretted taking...typing. I took it quite by accident. I had an extra class opening one semester that I had to fill and my counselor, wisely sensing that I was destined for a lifetime of either typing or digging ditches, tossed me in a typing class. Since this was BC (before computers) we didn't have typing tutor software, just drill after drill after drill.

In any event that was some good luck. Who was to know that computers would develop into such an everyday tool and typing skills would come in so handy. I got my first computer job because I was able to pass a typing test.

In the future we may be talking to our computers or even have a direct link to our brains, but typing skills are something that I believe will be an incredibly valuable skill for the foreseeable future.

The "Jumping Letters" drill can be set for any pace. Each time the correct letter is selected an animated "thingie", chosen by the user, removes the letter.

The "Letter Drill" game allows students to choose letters to practice. At the end of the drill a report is generated with words per minute, errors and time. A cartoon is played as a reward.

"Flying Letters" is the most advanced and is an arcade style game. The student sets the speed of the game, it generates a report at the end and a funny animation is the reward.

Animated Beginning Typing is from Flix Productions and I've seen and used all of their products. Not only is the animation fun but they really seemed to speak directly to kids. A special favorite is Animated Alphabet but don't get me wrong, all of their products are winners.

All Flix Productions programs use a non-Windows GUI so they'll run on any version of Windows.

Download Animated Typing

If you're looking for a typing tutor geared more towards older kids/adults be sure and check out Active Typing Tutor, a 14 lesson course that'll have you touch typing in no time.