Ages 6–8Star Keys — included in the Family plan on TotType
Star Keys is a real ten-finger typing course for six-to-eight-year-olds, and the next step after Home Row Hop. The keyboard is drawn as a night sky: each key your child learns lights up as a star in its finger’s colour, and every word they type draws its own constellation. An engine times every keystroke, brings weak keys back and opens new keys when the old ones are steady. Accuracy comes first, and speed only ever races your child’s own ghost. From the second unit on, each unit ends with Lights Out: the star map goes dark and your child finds the keys by feel.
- Ages
- 6–8
- Teaches
- Touch typing with all ten fingers, from F and J to capitals and question marks · Where every key lives, and which finger presses it
- Plan
- Family plan ($4.99/month) or Family Plus — try a free 60-second demo first
- Plays on
- Any browser — keyboard or touch, nothing to install
How to play Star Keys
Rest your pointer fingers on F and J, the keys with the little bumps. Type the letter that glows on the cloud ribbon, with the finger the owl names. Finish a word and its constellation draws itself across the sky. Fourteen units bring in every letter, then commas and periods, capitals with the other hand’s Shift, and question marks, exclamation marks and apostrophes. A wrong key never moves the cursor on, so there is no Backspace to learn. Real touch typing needs a physical keyboard; on a tablet without one, Key Map mode lets your child tap the stars, which teaches where every key lives.
What your child learns
- Touch typing with all ten fingers, from F and J to capitals and question marks
- Where every key lives, and which finger presses it
- Accurate, steady typing first; speed grows from there
- Capitals with the other hand’s Shift, commas, periods and apostrophes
- Typing by feel, with the map turned off, in Lights Out
Why it works at this age
Many typing tutors grade speed and keep the numbers to themselves. Star Keys grades accuracy first, measures every key on its own, brings the weak ones back and opens new keys when the old ones are steady, the adaptive method of modern typing tutors, tuned for six-to-eight-year-olds: realistic speed targets for each age, short sessions that end themselves, and a finale typed with the map turned off. Every key’s progress is in the Grown-ups corner, next to what is typical for your child’s age.
Tips for parents
- Sit beside your child for the 20-second finger check in the Grown-ups corner: the game can’t see fingers, and you can.
- In Lights Out, try Spotter mode: lay a tea towel over their hands, and tap the eyes button if they peek.
- One short session a day beats a long one; stop when the owl rests on the moon.
Frequently asked questions
What age is Star Keys for?
Ages 6 to 8. It starts with F and J, so a six-year-old can begin at the very beginning, and a 40-second home-row check lets Home Row Hop graduates skip ahead to E and I. Speed targets follow your child’s age (about 5, 7.5 and 9.6 words per minute at 6, 7 and 8), and full touch typing usually clicks at 7 to 8, once hands span the keys.
Does Star Keys need a physical keyboard?
For real touch typing, yes. On a tablet with no keyboard, Star Keys switches to Key Map mode: your child taps the stars, which teaches where every key lives but is not touch typing. Type one key on a real keyboard and it switches back at once.
How is my child’s typing measured?
Star Keys teaches where every key is and builds accurate, steady typing. It measures accuracy and speed for each key and shows them to you. It can’t see fingers, so a 20-second grown-up finger check confirms technique. The key tones are for fun. Game progress is saved on this device; learning shows up in your child’s Insights.
What does my child type?
Words from a list of 1,116 kid-safe words with anything unkind or scary taken out, short drills in the first unit, and 60 short sentences with no names. Lights Out only ever says words from a list of 189 friendly nouns, like shark, kite and pancake. Everything is in English.
How long is a session?
Usually 5 to 10 minutes. A session ends by itself after six flights or 12 minutes, whichever comes first, and a Lights Out round follows once it is earned. There are no streaks to keep up.
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