Start With the Bad News About Dance Mat Typing
If you learned to type at school, or taught an older child a decade ago, you probably have BBC Dance Mat Typing in mind. It does not work any more. The whole thing ran on Flash, every major browser dropped Flash support in early 2021, and the BBC never rebuilt it.
Parents still search for it in large numbers, and plenty of homeschool articles still recommend it, which is how families end up at sites promising to run it. Those are unofficial copies running an emulator rather than the BBC original. Skip the detour. Several free programs do the same job now and run in an ordinary browser.
When to Start
Hand size settles this more than birthdays do. A child needs fingers that can span the home row without lifting the wrist and shifting, which most kids manage around 7 or 8, and some later. The window where formal instruction takes hold runs roughly 8 to 12, and starting at the older end of that costs your child nothing at all.
So there is no reason to push a six-year-old whose hands do not fit the keyboard. You will spend months teaching a technique their fingers cannot hold and then reteaching it. Wait, start when the hands fit, and put it in the schedule as its own small subject rather than hoping it happens by osmosis while they write.
Fitting one more small subject into the week is easier when the week already has a shape.
Get the GuideA simple step-by-step plan for getting started.
The Free Programs Worth Using
TypingClub and Typing.com both run full structured courses, free for home use, and either one will carry a child from first keystrokes through to fluency. Both show hand position, track progress, and sequence the keys in an order that builds rather than overwhelms. If you want one recommendation and no research, pick either of those two and start on Monday.
Two others fill different jobs. Nitro Type turns typing into car races, which does nothing to teach technique and a great deal for a child who has learned the technique and now refuses to practise. Keybr watches which keys your child keeps missing and builds drills around those, which suits an older kid grinding out the last of their accuracy. Use the first pair to teach and the second pair to maintain.
Is a Paid Program Ever Worth It?
Sometimes, and the reasons are narrower than the sales pages suggest. Paid programs tend to offer offline software that runs without a connection, record keeping tidy enough to drop into a portfolio, and a parent dashboard that shows you more than a free tier does. If your province or state asks you to document what your child covered, that last pair can save you an afternoon.
What they do not buy you is better teaching. The keys sit in the same places, the finger assignments are the same, and a child who practises daily on a free program gets where they are going. Start free, and only pay if you hit a specific wall, which for most families means record keeping or a child who needs something the free tiers do not have. We are not naming prices here because they move, so check the current figure before you buy anything.
What Good Practice Looks Like
Fifteen minutes a day beats an hour on Saturday, and it is not close. Typing is a motor skill, so your child's hands learn it through frequent short repetition, and a tired child practising sloppily is teaching their fingers habits you will have to undo. Stop the session while it is still going well.
Accuracy comes before speed, every time. A child typing 20 words a minute cleanly is in better shape than one racing at 35 and backspacing through half of it, because speed arrives on its own once the movements are right and accuracy does not. Cover the hands if your child peeks, keep the posture reasonable, and resist the urge to test speed weekly. The number will move when it moves.
Rough Targets by Age
Treat these as orientation rather than standards, since kids vary and none of this is a test your child can fail. Around grade 3 a child working at it lands near 15 words a minute. By grade 5 somewhere between 15 and 25 is reasonable, at age 12 roughly 25 to 35, and through high school 40 to 55 with good accuracy puts your child in fine shape for exams and coursework.
What matters more than hitting any of those is that the numbers keep moving and the accuracy holds. A child stuck at the same speed for six months with 80 percent accuracy needs to slow down rather than push harder, which is the opposite of what most kids will tell you.
Where Typing Fits in a Low-Screen Homeschool
Families who keep lessons on paper sometimes worry that skipping keyboards early leaves a gap, and typing is the one place that worry has substance. The reassuring part is how small the fix is: a few months of short daily practice from around age ten closes it, and the years before that lose nothing by staying on paper. We covered that trade-off in whether your child will fall behind without screens.
Treat it as one small subject with a start date rather than as a reason to change how you teach everything else. Fifteen minutes on the schedule from age ten and your child arrives at high school able to type without thinking, which is the entire goal.
Not sure what else belongs in the year, or when? The guide lays out what to teach and in what order.
Get the GuideA step-by-step plan for your first weeks at home.
A Note from Homeschool Teacher Guide: What This Really Means for You
We keep this one short because typing does not deserve the agonising that curriculum choices get. It is a motor skill with a well-worn path, the free programs are as good as the paid ones for a home learner, and the main way families get it wrong is by starting too early and giving up, or by never starting at all.
If you take two things: check that whatever program you pick still runs before you build a term around it, and put accuracy ahead of speed for as long as your child will tolerate it. Everything else about this subject sorts itself out with fifteen minutes a day and a bit of patience.
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☕ Buy us a coffee ($5)Frequently Asked Questions
What Age Should My Child Start?
Hand size decides this more than age. Most kids can reach the keys around 7 or 8, and the window where instruction sticks runs roughly 8 to 12. Starting at ten costs nothing, so there is no need to push a six-year-old whose fingers cannot span the home row. Wait until the hands fit the keyboard.
Does BBC Dance Mat Typing Still Work?
No. It ran on Flash, browsers dropped Flash in early 2021, and the BBC never rebuilt it. The original is gone from the BBC site. Anywhere offering to let you play it is running an unofficial emulator copy, which is worth knowing before you send your child there.
What Is the Best Free Program?
TypingClub and Typing.com both run full structured courses free for home use, with hand-position guidance and progress tracking, and either will take a child from the first keys to fluency. Nitro Type is a racing game for a child who needs motivation rather than teaching. Keybr drills the keys your child keeps missing.
How Fast Should My Child Type?
As rough targets: about 15 words a minute around grade 3, 15 to 25 by grade 5, roughly 25 to 35 at age 12, and 40 to 55 through high school. Accuracy beats all of it. A child at 20 words a minute typing cleanly has better habits than one at 35 who backspaces through half the sentence.
How Much Practice?
About 15 minutes a day, and short beats long. Your child's hands learn this through frequent brief repetition, so one long weekly session builds the skill slower and builds sloppiness alongside it. Most families see a child typing comfortably within a few months at that dose.
Sources
This guide was written in August 2026 from the following sources. Programs and their free tiers change, so check that a program still runs before building a term around it.