Learn How to Type Online

I wanted my 9th grader to utilize one of the free sites where you can learn how to type online. After a little searching, I believe I have found a site that will work for our homeschool this year.

Learn How to Type Online with Peter
Peter's Online Typing Course is what we will be using. The site is pretty basic. There's nothing flashy about it. But I like that. I want to keep distractions to a minimum so that my son can concentrate on his lessons and get the most out of them. We are going to start with the preliminaries an then work through the exercises in order.

Work at Your Own Pace
One of the benefits when you learn how to type online is that your accuracy and speed is tested during each lesson. So, I will allow my son to go through the lessons at a pace that works for him. And I'll stress to him the importance of not moving on to the next lesson until the current one has been mastered.

Just One Semester
The typing class will take place everyday, Monday through Friday. So I doubt that it will take an entire school year to learn how to type online. So, I am scheduling this as a one semester class. Of course, if it takes longer than that for my son to become proficient in typing then I will extend it through the whole school year. But again, I don't think that will be necessary.

A Short Class
I'm not sure yet how much time should be allotted to learn how to type online. But this definitely isn't an hour long class. Even 45 minutes seems like it might be too long. So for the first week I'll schedule it as a 30 minute class. I'll tweak the time, if necessary, once I get a feel for how much time works.

Not Just for Homeschoolers
Obviously, Peter's Online typing course isn't just for home educators who want to learn how to type online. Anyone can use it. When I was in high school I taught myself how to type using a book from the library. But I stopped once I'd mastered the letters. I never bothered to truly learn the numbers. So I plan on doing that in the near future.

Free Homeschool Spanish Curriculum for High School Students

I was absolutely astounded when I started looking for a homeschool Spanish curriculum. Wow, you can spend a small fortune teaching your children another language.

Free Spanish Book and Teacher's Manual
So, I was happy when I came across a free student book for learning Spanish. The book is called Poco a Poco. It was written by a University of Texas foreign language instructor in 1922. Don't let the date fool you. This book is still an excellent resource today. And here is the teacher's manual to go along with it. Over the summer my son went through a few of the lessons on his own. I just printed out a new lesson each time he completed one.


A Self Teaching Approach to Spanish
He enjoyed it so much that I decided that he'll take Spanish I this year. We will be using Getting Started with Spanish: Beginning Spanish for Homeschoolers and Self-Taught Students of Any Age. This isn't a free book but I like that the book was written with the self learner in mind. I think my son will do well using the approach taken in the book. And we will use the links provided to listen to the proper way to pronounce the words.

Free Videos to Learn Spanish
I'm also going to see if we can incorporate the excellent set of free videos available on Learner.org called Destinos - An Introduction to Spanish. If you are completely unfamiliar with Spanish then the videos alone may not be adequate enough to teach your high school student Spanish. However, you can buy used workbooks to accompany the series for just a few dollars on Amazon.

• Workbook/Study Guide I (Lessons 1-26) to accompany Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish

• Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish Workbook/Study Guide II (Lecciones 27-52)

As of this post, you can buy each workbook (used) for less than $10 plus tax.