Spongebob Square Pants Typing

Rating:
Summary: Pretty pictures. Useless as a tutor.
Review: (UPDATE: Based on another later review, it appears that several features I was looking for were present, but not identifiable from the menu. I will re-review the program, but the menu SHOULD make it clear how to begin the process.)

If you intend to use this product to teach your kids how to type, forget it, save your money. You might as well leave them in front of a blank Word doc, and tell them to start typing.

Yes, you get some short semi-animated clips leading up to the actual lessons. And it sure sounds like they used the original voice actors. But apparently that's where all the creativity stopped or the budget ran out.

The tutoring aspect consists of showing the student some Spongebob-related phrases, and telling them to type the same thing. Along the bottom of the screen, a translucent set of animated fingers shows which finger the student should use to hit the next key.

That's it.

No introductory levels. No practise on small words. No repetition so the student becomes familiar with the postion of each key. Just typing complete sentences.

And if you spell "SpongeBob" as "Spongebob", it counts as an error.

And to make things even more fun, the display of letters also includes the paragraph marks. My daughter was nearly in tears because she couldn't find a "backward P" on the keyboard.

Calling this program a typing tutor is the equivalent of dropping your kid in the middle of the ocean and calling it a swimming lesson.

A poorly designed rip off.



Rating:
Summary: Good tutorial. Funny scripts
Review: My 8-year-old niece enjoys using this program. Already in the first hour, she's gone from a 2wpm hunt & peck to a consistent 5wpm with her hands in the correct position. I don't know what the previous reviewer was talking about in regards to just throwing the kid into the progam. There are easy lessons that slowly build up the child up. For instance, lesson 1 is right-hand only: asdf. Lesson 2 is left-hand only: ;lkj. You'll still have to help your kid find where the lessons are and coach them to not look at their hands. You can't just throw them in and expect them to start typing. The previous user's confusion probably stemmed from the fact that the "Tournament" section is where the lessons are. Jumping into the "Practice" section is typing text from a script. In that respect, the game could have been better labeled. But my niece is having fun and laughing while learning to type and that is what makes this program great.