The Typing Game

April 13th, 2020
kids, tech
The kids and I play a typing game. I'll be sitting on the couch with my laptop, and one of them will come over and ask to play. We'll load up jefftk.com/speak:

I'll write something:

Then they'll write something:

Then I'll write something:

It only accepts letters, numbers, and a few punctuation marks. As you type it says the letters, and when you press enter it says your whole sentence. There's a history, but once something scrolls off the bottom of the screen it's gone.

Some ways we'll play with it:

  • They'll ask me how to write something, I'll spell it. I'll point out the letters as needed, as vaguely as I can.
  • I'll write something, they'll guess at it, then we press enter and find out if they're right.
  • I'll write something, they'll copy it.
  • I'll write a word like 'SAD' and then they'll see if they can modify it to make a related word like 'MAD'.

It uses upper-case and sans-serif because that's what the letters on they keyboard look like.

I got the idea from Daniel's version, but rewrote it from scratch to better ignore mistaken inputs. Feel free to copy and modify!

Referenced in: Kids and Time

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Linkpost for March

Effective Altruism

via Thing of Things March 2, 2026

The Newest Technology in Frozen

There are lots of different things in Frozen that are new-ish, but my dad and I were wondering: what is the actual newest thing in Frozen? This led me to watch Frozen a lot while taking notes. Some of the things I found included: Elastic hair-ties A safety …

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts March 1, 2026

2025-26 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Highlights include a minimal group house, the usefulness…

via Victoria Krakovna January 19, 2026

more     (via openring)