P. O. Box 34183
Fort Worth, TX 76162
(800) 559-2154

Keyboarding for the Christian School is a book meant to teach touch typing and basic word processing. As the cover states, it is written specifically for teens in Christian schools and/or homeschools. My twelve-year-old used this book. We both liked the ample readability of the font and the actual text supplied for practice-often Bible texts or inspirational passages. In later lessons, Beitel included screen shots from Microsoft Word XP. I appreciated the author's thoroughness in addressing useful and common correspondence format, commonly used proofreader's marks, and two specific report styles. Each of these represents a vital skill, and each is soundly handled. Additionally, timed tests are supplied-something I'm sure we all remember as part of our long-ago typing classes. I didn't enjoy them when I was learning (who did?), but they've proven useful for me, as they have for my pupil in this course. While we didn't use the grading chart, I can certainly see that others would find it helpful. My only complaint about Keyboarding for the Christian School is that the book itself is sort of clunky, for lack of a better term. Unless you have an adequate book stand and the space in which to use it, you would likely find it easier to use pages copied out of the book and pinched into a document holder attached to the computer screen. As there was no copyright statement printed in the book to address copying within a family or home school, or an extension of the copyright to the owner of the book, I attempted to contact the author via her publishing house in an effort to obtain permission to copy pages for my eldest to use in the manner described above. I did not receive a reply. I found this book to be solid in format, instruction, and material used as samples. My son isn't fully convinced of the need for good form in keyboarding, but he's getting there as we've revisited some of the concepts he learned. I recommend Keyboarding for the Christian School. Product review by Carrie Wilbur, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, September 2007