Japanese resources?

[maize]

A couple of my kids are asking me to teach them Japanese. I'm reluctant because a) our schedule is full already, and b) my Japanese is very rusty. I lived for a time in Japan and was moderately fluent in spoken Japanese, but it's been fifteen years since I used Japanese at all.

 

Does anyone want to point me to some nice easy introductory Japanese materials for middle grade kids? Also, resources for me to polish up my skills?

Edited January 12, 2016 by maize

[waa510]

Hmm...we use the Tako app for writing hiragana/katakana and Kanji. Dr. Moku's app for hiragana and katakana recognition.  Memrise app and MindSnacks app for vocabulary and JLPT prep. A good overview for you would maybe be Human Japanese and some youtube videos. We also use some Kanji and Japanese vocabulary workbooks from Amazon, Tuttle Flashcards, things like that. I like Japanesepod101.com and Pimsleur but they bore my kids sometimes. We also have the bonus of immersion. I sometimes do JLPT boot camp's channel on youtube for the nitty gritty grammar if my brain can handle it! My learning more and going over it with my kids has helped. We also go to Japanese Girl Scout events and talk with Japanese neighbors a bunch. There are also sites like italki.com that can connect the kids with a native speaker, which is super helpful. 

 

We use a lot of different things when/if we feel up to it. We have a full plate too so sometimes this stuff gets pushed to the side more than I'd like, but we're getting there. I'll edit my post if I think of anything else! 

[Kerileanne99]

Have you seen the free Japanese video lessons put together by Georgia Public Broadcasting? Really awesome resource! The program is called Irasshai.

 

http://www.gpb.org/irasshai