One of the most difficult things I faced when learning Japanese in school was remembering all the Hiragana characters. We didn't start learning a second language until grade 6 which I strongly feel is far too late. For me all the characters looked a bit alike and even if I remembered what it looked like I couldn't necessarily remember what is sounded like.
After watching some students struggle last year with the same problem I wanted to come up with a way of having information about the characters but also how to write, spell, recognise...the character. I think in part the way I was taught - confronted by an entire table of Hiragana characters was just too much. Kids need focused attention on each character - not just to recognise and say but write and put it in words to see why they need to know it.
