Typing Exercises for Kids: Ready-to-Use Practice Lines by Step

The best typing exercises for kids start small: a few real words on the home row, then more rows, then sentences. Here are practice lines for each step on a US QWERTY keyboard, plus how to practice them in 10 to 15 minutes a day.

How to practice so the exercises actually work

The lines below are only half of it. How your child types them matters more than which lines they pick.

• Eyes on the screen, not the keys. Looking down is a habit that gets harder to undo the longer it sticks. If your child peeks, a sheet of paper or a light cloth over the hands works fine.
• Slow and neat. Accuracy comes first. Speed tends to follow once the fingers know where to go.
• The right finger for every key. Fingers rest on A S D F (left hand) and J K L ; (right hand), with both thumbs on the space bar. Not sure which finger takes which key? See Typing Finger Placement: Which Finger, Which Key?
• Each line three times. Repetition is the point. Type it, pause, type it again.

Move to the next step when most keys are right and the typing feels calm. A target of about 90% correct keys is a sensible bar. If your child complains of hand or wrist pain, stop and talk to a doctor.

Step 1: Home row words practice

Start with the middle row only. Your child's fingers stay put, so there is nothing to hunt for. Warm up with the letters alone: asdf jkl; a few times.

First, lines that use only A S D F and J K L ;:

• ask dad
• a sad lad
• all lads fall
• dad asks a lad

Once those feel comfortable, add G and H. The index fingers reach sideways to them and then come straight back home:

• dad had a glass
• half a flask
• shall dad ask a lad

Other words that need only the home row: fall, salad, flash, glad, hall, slash, dash. Let your child pick a few and make up their own lines. Silly ones count, and they make practice more fun.

Step 2: Adding the top and bottom rows

Now the fingers stretch up and down and come home again. This is where hunt and peck habits sneak in, so go slowly. After every key, the finger returns to its home row spot. If this is already a struggle, How to Stop Hunt and Peck Typing in Kids can help.

Start with short lines:

• we type to write
• the red bike
• pour the water
• a quiet pet
• my big blue van

Then try words that mix rows: quick, pretty, river, never, mix, visit, number, forest. If one letter keeps going wrong, make a line out of it, like pop pot top tip for the letter P, and repeat that line a few times.

Step 3: Short sentences in lowercase

Once single words feel steady, string them together. Keep the sentences short and keep everything lowercase for now. The space bar is a key too, and a thumb has to learn it.

• the dog likes to run in the park
• we read a book after lunch
• my cat naps by the window
• we play games on the weekend
• a quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

That last line uses every letter of the alphabet, which makes it a nice check for gaps. If you spot letters that went wrong, circle them on paper and build the next practice session around them.

Step 4: Capital letters and punctuation

Capitals use the Shift key, and the trick is to press the Shift on the opposite side from the letter. For a capital M, which the right hand types, the left pinky presses left Shift. For a capital A, the right pinky presses right Shift.

Punctuation comes next. On a US keyboard, the comma and period sit under the right hand, and the question mark is Shift plus the key to the right of the period. The exclamation mark is Shift plus the 1 key, so use the right Shift for it. Try these lines:

• Mom made pancakes today.
• Can we go to the park?
• Yes, and bring your jacket!
• My name is Sam; I am nine.
• We saw 3 birds, 2 dogs, and 1 fox.

Numbers are the farthest reach on the keyboard, so give them their own short sessions. Real sentences from your child's day, like what they ate or what happened at recess, are even better than made-up ones.

A 10 to 15 minute routine for today

Short and regular beats long and rare. A simple order that fits most evenings:

1. 2 minutes: warm up with the letters and words from the last session.
2. 6 to 8 minutes: work on the current step, each line three times.
3. 2 to 3 minutes: one fun line your child chooses, with no pressure.

Sit together for the first few days, then step back. Praise neat typing, not fast typing. If your child finds typing unusually hard or tiring, talk to the teacher, the school or a doctor.

Making the exercises feel like a game

Lists of lines can get dull by day four. Typcoon: Nightcode is a typing game that runs in the browser on a laptop or computer with a real keyboard. An AI has switched off a whole city, and every command your child types switches a piece of it back on. Neat typing earns the most.

The game introduces letters one at a time, only when the previous ones are solid, and brings back the ones your child still finds hard. Each finger has its own color, and the next key lights up on the on-screen keyboard in that color, so your child's eyes stay on the screen. The home row and the whole first district, the Harbour, are free, with no account, no time limit and no ads. After 10 minutes the game says today's practice is done, and your child can keep playing if they want.

You can try it at Typcoon alongside the paper lines above. For the bigger picture, our guide to typing for kids covers the whole path.

Learn to type while you switch a city back on

In Typcoon: Nightcode, every command your child types switches a piece of a blacked-out city back on. Typing neatly earns the most, so your child learns to touch type without even noticing. Free to try, no account needed.

▶ Play free

Typing for Kids: The Complete Guide →