Fun Way to Practice Kanji

My daughter is now in 3rd grade at Japanese School. The amount of new kanji they have to learn every week is, to be honest, overwhelming. It is very difficult to practice, memorize, and retain hundreds of kanji, especially when you don’t live in Japan and aren’t exposed to Japanese words all the time.

Oftentimes, “kanji-practicing time” is accompanied by lots of whining and feet-dragging. I have been trying to brainstorm ways to practice kanji that isn’t so dreary. Here is one game I thought up that my daughter really enjoyed.

 

1. First, practice writing the kanji you are trying to learn in chalk. I drew squares and my daughter wrote the kanji within the squares.
2. Then to play the game, call out the kanji in random order. The other player runs/jumps to that kanji. Take turns if you’d like!

This turned out to be a great way to practice both writing and reading kanji, and we got in a little bit of exercise as well. This game can be used to learn hiragana or katakana too!

I’m hoping to share more kanji-practicing ideas with you in the future. What are some of your tips for learning and retaining kanji?

NHK for School!

Dear Hiragana Mama Readers, thank you so much for sticking around! We welcomed a new baby girl into our family a few months ago and have been savoring these fleeting newborn days. I have even less free time than before, but I really wanted to share this website with you today: NHK for School.

I visited this site a few years ago and back then, it was nothing to write home about. But now, it is a fabulous GOLDMINE of educational resources for the school-aged student. The site contains thousands of educational episodes and video clips, along with suggestions for how to use it at school/home. The content can be searched by grade level (first grade through high school) or by subject (Japanese, math, social studies, science, art, physical education, etc). It is pretty awesome.

Now, I wouldn’t recommend this site for people who are just beginning to learn Japanese, or toddlers. If you don’t know a little bit of Japanese, it might be hard to navigate this site. The website was designed for students in Japan to supplement their learning at school. This site is perfect for those of us living overseas trying to teach our children about the Japanese language and culture. I feel like this is a great mid-week supplement to Japanese School (hoshuuko). If you can’t afford TV Japan, this is a great alternative. You can read more about the purpose of NHK for School in English, here.

Anyway, if you haven’t already checked it , click this link and enjoy!! http://www.nhk.or.jp/school/

Keropon’s! ケロポンズ/エビカニクス

Today I want to share with you an adorable Japanese music duo that creates music to get kids and parents moving! They are called Keropon’s (ケロポンズ), and here’s their group’s description from their website:

親子で楽しめる、笑いあり、歌あり、遊びあり、体操あり、ミュージックパネルあり、なんでもあり～のステージを全国各地でくりひろげ、その面白さは宇宙的！と評判。

(My rough translation: “Creating music, play, dance, and everything else that children and parents can enjoy together– it’s so fun it’s out-of-this-world!”).

Here’s one of their music videos, called  エブカニクス(Shrimp-Crab-Exercise):

Click HERE to browse more of their fun music videos.

See how a Japanese Preschool in Los Angeles (Suika Preschool) used this song in their classroom:

I’m going to try some of these songs with my kids today!