Finally, I’m starting on compiling the resources I use to go with my Sagebooks. Getting off my behind because Astroboy consistently cannot remember 10-15 characters from the second set, despite our reviews. So it it time to whip out the other materials to help him remember.
We’ve been using Anki to make sure he remembers some of the old characters from Set 1 (we’re in Set 3). Next up is Train Chinese’s Chinese Writer character packs. The app itself is available for iTunes and Android. This is a program which allows children to practice Chinese writing with a game app. I don’t love the program because the font it uses for its writing is bad. (My pet peeve, people who don’t notice these details.) This is not a writing font, and for me it is unconsciously telling kids who use the app how they should write these characters, but it’s wrong. For example, look at the character for 四, 回. It should be (mostly) a box on the outside.
That said, it is the only app I know out there. So better than nothing.
Here are the character packs I generated. It does not necessarily follow Sagebooks verbatim, I added a few more characters in because Hong Kong characters are slightly different sometimes. I’ve emailed Chinese Writer to tell them about the missing characters.
To Download These Packs:
Sorry, I don’t have Android so I don’t know the specifics for them. This is what worked for iOS.
- Buy the app
- Buy the HSK character packs. You can’t use custom packs unless you own the characters already.
- Download above links (right click and save)
- Email them all to yourself
- Open the Chinese Write App
- Open email viewer if iOS. Here’s more info from their website:
When downloading packs from this page on an iOS device you can open them directly if the writer is installed. If you are using a desktop or laptop, simply email the downloaded file to yourself as an attachment and open the email on your iOS device, then tap the attachment at the bottom of the message to open it in the Chinese Writer. Only characters you own will be available for browsing and play.
