Mojikaki: Japanese Writing

Trace hiragana, katakana and the alphabet in stroke order with a finger or Apple Pencil, and earn a medal for each character. The app is in Japanese. No ads, no account.

Mojikaki (もじかき, "writing letters") is an app where children from age 3 practice writing hiragana, katakana and the alphabet by tracing them with a finger or an Apple Pencil. They trace the model one stroke at a time; when a character is written, a train rides along its strokes, and each character earns a medal.

The app is in Japanese. The screens your child uses are written in hiragana, the characters and words are read aloud in Japanese, and the parent area (settings, adding a child or a word, the purchase) is in Japanese. It is made for children who speak Japanese, whether they live in Japan or abroad.

■ Trace and write The model strokes move in stroke order, and your child traces them from the starting mark, one stroke at a time. When the order and the direction are right, the next stroke comes; when it does not go well, the model moves again to show the way. The shape is judged generously, so even young children can keep going. Each character's name is read aloud as its screen opens, and again at a tap; the letters of the alphabet are read the Japanese way (エー, ビー, シー). The alphabet is written on the four lines of an English exercise book: the capitals in print, the small letters in cursive.

■ Write it, and a train rides it When a character is written, rails are laid along its strokes and a train rides them in stroke order, from tunnel to tunnel, with the sound of a train going by. Each ride comes in a new color. Each child's icon is a train too, in one of five colors.

■ A medal for each character Bronze the first time a character is written, silver once it has been written on ten different days, gold once it has been written without the model on three different days. No score or percentage is ever shown: the medals, and a hanamaru on the characters written that day, show your child's progress day by day. Hiragana, katakana, the alphabet and words sit on one home screen, a button or a swipe apart.

■ Their own handwriting, under each character Each character your child writes is kept just as it was drawn, in crayon, in a row under that character's practice screen. A tap plays a drawing back, in the order and at the speed it was written.

■ Words (ことば) When a parent adds the words your child loves, such as their name or でんしゃ (train), your child can practice writing them one character at a time. Small っ and ゃ and the long-vowel mark ー can be written too. In the free version the words are in hiragana; once all characters are unlocked, they can be in katakana and the alphabet too.

■ For brothers and sisters Up to six children on one device, each with their own drawings and medals. Works on iPhone and iPad, in portrait and landscape.

■ Free version and one-time unlock The free version has all 71 hiragana, including the forms with ゛ and ゜ (が, ぱ...), and words in hiragana. A one-time purchase unlocks all 71 katakana, including the forms with ゛ and ゜, the 52 capital and small letters of the alphabet, and words in katakana and the alphabet. The purchase covers every child on the device, with no subscription and no ads. Buying and restoring are behind a check for parents.

■ Peace of mind • No ads, no account, no analytics and no tracking. • Your child's name, drawings and medals are kept on this device only. • The screens your child uses have no links out of the app and no purchase prompts. Settings, the purchase and adding words are behind a check for parents (Face ID or Touch ID, or a multiplication question). • Works without an internet connection (except for buying and restoring).

■ Credits The hiragana and katakana stroke data is based on KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0). The voice reading the characters aloud is VOICEVOX:春日部つむぎ (Kasukabe Tsumugi).