Everyone needs to be able to use a keyboard and mouse effectively. In this guide, we’ll show you the best resources for the job, and explain how you can incorporate them into your homeschool.
We are not sponsored by any of the products described in this post.
Avoid Tablets – Teach Mouse and Keyboard Skills Instead
At Journey With a Destination, we’re big believers in the importance of teaching children computer expertise. Unfortunately, many children today are never developing even the most basic computer literacy skills. It’s genuinely painful to see the number of young people who aren’t comfortable using a keyboard, or who find standard PC interfaces unintuitive. There are several culprits, but one of the biggest is that many of these young people have grown up using tablets, smartphones, and similar touchscreen-based devices.
As a life-long programmer, I’ll be very frank: tablets and smartphones are worse for a child’s health than a diet of pure junk food. As educational tools, they also don’t offer anything remotely resembling the flexibility and utility of a standard laptop or desktop computer. They can be useful for professionals who spend much of their time on the move, but many advanced computer tasks (such as programming or data analysis) simply can’t be completed on a touchscreen very effectively. Children tend to gravitate towards tablets because it’s easier for them to get started with a touchscreen than with a mouse and keyboard, but this really isn’t good for their development. Keyboard and mouse skills are absolutely critical, and it’s important that children start practicing them as early as possible.
CyberStart
The best place to start teaching your child mouse skills is CyberStart. This is a rather old and minimalistic piece of software, but don’t let the simple graphics turn you away – it really is a fantastic way to introduce children to controlling a mouse. Unlike many other resources we’ve seen, CyberStart does not require children to click or drag anything in the game – they only need to move the mouse pointer over certain things. This is very important, because it allows children to slowly learn core mouse skills one at a time, without being overwhelmed by learning everything all at once. Learning to move and point the mouse is hard enough; they can learn how to click and drag later.
To begin working with CyberStart, install the game using the free downloadable installer. From the CyberStart menu, click “Start” and then “Begin”.
This will bring you to a simple black screen with an outline of a border around the sides. Your child’s first task is to move the mouse to the border at each edge; upon touching each side of the border with the mouse, it will fill with a solid color. There’s no need to click the borders – simply moving the mouse over them is enough. Once all four sides of the border are filled, a smiley face will appear, and your child simply needs to move the mouse over the smiley face to move on.
Many of the subsequent levels involve moving a small shape on top of a larger shape. This does not require using the mouse buttons. All children need to do is hover the mouse over the small shape, at which point the mouse will automatically pick it up. Players then only need to move the mouse over the large shape, and the small shape will automatically drop on top of it.
Another type of activity involves moving the mouse over a pattern of boxes in order (specifically, by going over each row from left to right, starting with the top row).
It’s amazing how quickly children can learn mouse skills from using CyberStart. We’ve seen major improvements with just 2-3 sessions of 15 minutes each. Once you feel like your child has started to become reasonably comfortable with moving the mouse, you can move on to the next section of this guide.
Unfortunately, the website for CyberStart is no longer operational; however, it is archived on the Wayback Machine. You can download the program by clicking the “Download cs.exe” link from the CyberStart homepage, or directly by clicking here.
Freddi Fish and Putt-Putt
Once your child has become comfortable playing CyberStart, it’s time to move on to something a little more challenging. For this purpose, we recommend two classic game franchises that are simple enough for young children to handle: specifically, Freddi Fish and Putt-Putt. These games task young players with solving simple puzzles to investigate mysteries or to help people in need. They feature interactive environments where nearly everything can be clicked on, generally with some sort of silly or fun result. This means that children are actively encouraged to click on everything they see, which is absolutely perfect for helping them hone their mouse skills.
There main games in the Freddi Fish and Putt-Putt series are:
- Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds
- Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse
- Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell
- Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch
- Freddi Fish 5: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove
- Putt-Putt Joins the Parade
- Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon
- Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo
- Putt-Putt Travels Through Time
- Putt-Putt Enters the Race
- Putt-Putt Joins the Circus
It doesn’t matter much which of these specific games you get; feel free to pick a few that might match your child’s interests. If in doubt, we suggest getting Freddi Fish 1, Freddi Fish 2, and Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo. All of them are currently available on Steam for $6.99 each. If your child enjoys these games, you might want to consider purchasing the Humongous Entertainment Complete Pack, which includes all of these games, plus many others that can be great for slightly higher grade levels (such as the Junior Field Trips and Pajama Sam games). For information about using Steam for educational games, we recommend that you visit our Parent’s Guide to Steam.
Because these games involve puzzles, you’ll need to play the games alongside your child. Where possible, let them explore the game on their own terms, but be prepared to provide assistance when it is needed. The puzzles aren’t very complex, but they do sometimes involve some slightly outside-the-box thinking. If you find yourself unsure how to make progress in the game (which happens to the best of us!), don’t hesitate to search for a walkthrough online; it isn’t difficult to find both written walkthroughs and YouTube video walkthroughs.
Remember that the primary goal here is to help students become comfortable with the mouse. Encourage your child to click on anything that looks interesting, make sure that they are holding the mouse as much as possible; you should only take the mouse when they are struggling with something.
One of the best features of these games is that they include a bit of randomization: each time children play them, certain small details will change. Items that previously appeared in one place may instead be located somewhere else. This means that children can play them many times, with a slightly different experience for each playthrough. Expect to spend about 2-3 hours getting through each game the first time, and roughly 0.5-1.5 hours for each subsequent playthrough. We recommend playing through each game several times, so that you spend at least 10 hours with them.
Although these games are quite accessible to young children, there are a few things that might not be entirely obvious at first. In particular, here are a few controls you should know about:
- To Save: Press the “S” key, then click one of the save spots and type a name for the save game
- To Load: Press the “L” key, then click one of the existing saves
- To Exit: Press “F5” to bring up the menu, then click the exit button
Alpha Zoo
Alpha Zoo is a lovely little game that is available for $4.99 on Steam. Players use the arrow keys to move a cartoon bear around a zoo, which initially is filled with empty enclosures. When players walk up to an enclosure, they can fill it with animals by typing the type of animal that belongs in the enclosure (for example, “tiger” or “chimpanzee”). Players can feed the animals by typing “feed”, or make them poop by typing “poop”. There are also a variety of buildings that players can build and interact with, such as a train station, a cafe, and a gift shop. These are built by walking to the location where the building should go and typing its name; after building each building, there are generally other ways that players can interact with them by typing certain words.
The game shows exactly which letters the player needs to type for each possible action, so there’s absolutely no need for children to know how to spell, or even the sounds the letters make (although playing the game is a great opportunity to work on developing these skills). At this age, we don’t recommend trying to teach formal touch-typing skills – just let your child become accustomed to the idea of using the arrow keys to control a character, and and to start typing letters with the keyboard. If you want to help reinforce your child’s Preschool Composition studies, we recommend that you go over the sounds of the letters as your child types each one.
To get the most out of Alpha Zoo, it’s important to realize that it is possible to restart the game with a new zoo. To do this, first press the “escape” button to bring up the menu. Then, use the arrow keys to navigate to the “New Small Zoo” or “New Large Zoo” option, and press the “enter” key. Each zoo is randomly generated, and you may get the chance to see new animals each time you restart the game. This feature is great for young children, as it gives them the opportunity to replay the game several times.
Putting this All Together
The overall goal of this grade level is simply to acclimate children to the use of keyboard and mouse controls. By the end, your child should be able to move the mouse to specific locations on the screen, click on specific items, and use the arrow keys to control movement. The basic process for doing this is:
- Help your child play CyberStart for 10-20 minutes several times a week, until your child is able to move the mouse to specific locations on the screen. For some children, this may only require a handful of play sessions.
- Help your child play Freddi Fish and Putt-Putt games for a total of at least 10 hours, until they are comfortable clicking things with the mouse. In addition, help your child play Alpha Zoo for a total of at least several hours.
Once you’ve accomplished that, it’s time to move on to the next grade level!
