By the way, Anki is an application I think you could find useful. I believe there’s a version for the iPhone and one for Android.

1) Kobota, Pierre-Philippe de Costanzo
2) Japanese, codefromtokyo
3) Kanji
4) KanjiBox
5) JMW, Kanji Writer Pro

There is also a DS game that I used as well, it was blue with yellow text, can’t remember the name. That actually might be better because it teaches you write the kanji correctly and also has combinations as well. Hope that helps.

You’ve got to start somewhere. If you already know the vocabulary (unlike most adult students, but like Japanese kids), it seems smart. There are whole bookstores full of books and study guides and such catered to each grade level, so you can practice reading with just the kanji you’re supposed to know about at that point in your study. —Jeffrey

One program I use to study Kanji is なぞっておぼえる大人の漢字練習改訂版 for the DS, which seems to be similar to what you are talking about. It also has a “Draw the kanji for this reading in this phrase”, so it tests seeing a reading and writing the Kanji.

The problem is that it is made for Adults, as the name suggests, so the vocabulary isn’t limited, and unknown Kanji can be used in the phrase (but with furigana)

Then all you’d need is a “deck”, a set of flash cards. Which is a bit harder, since nearly everything deck commonly available is designed for westerners learning the language many for not arranged in grade order. That leaves you with a few options: Get Anthony to add cards as school introduces them as part of his homework, ie they introduce 食, so he adds “もっと食べて!” and then the hiragana equiv in the answer field. Or maybe the more traditional kanji + readings out of context. Another option would be to find a deck organized by grade.

There isn’t exactly what you want already out there but SRS comes pretty close.

With the above iPad situation in mind,
what do you and your wife speak at home?
And Anthony is also learning Japaense or English or both?

Is Anthony comfortable with both languages or is it a matter
of knowing Japanese takes precedent; except when you travel to Ohio?

Bryce Lee (Iam not Asian)
Burlington, Ontario

I just got an iPad so that’s why I’m looking. Anthony speaks both natively; I make a point to speak English in Japan, but sprinkle some Japanese during summers in Ohio. Fumie’s English is better than my Japanese, so we’re probably 60/40 English at home. —Jeffrey

A company called Tuttle makes paper kanji cards but they are way too small and grown adults end up losing them.

Rosetta Stone supposedly shows kanji but is way to expensive, especially for your native speaking son.

A good website to try is livemocha(dot)com. This is like a free version of Rosetta stone. The good thing about livemocha is that when you learn Japanese, it has an option to allow the words/sentences to appear with full hira/kata +kanji.

They also have tests and reviews. The downside of livemocha is that if you don’t pay then you have to tutor other users in exchange for using the site. This social media aspect is probably not appropriate for a 7 year old. However if you pay to play, you may not have to do the social media aspect.

Please keep us informed of any progress you find, I am also searching for this. And for what its worth, if you come up with a software, I’ll create a gui/front-end for your website, whatever for the cause. Hallelujah! Amen!

There are oodles of apps (iPhone/iPad/Web) to help other-language adults learn kanji… just search for “kanji” and “japanese” in the iTunes store and you’ll find a dozen. But they’re no help to a Japanese elementary-schooler. —Jeffrey