How and when do Japanese children learn kanas and kanji?


I wonder how exactly Japanese children learn to write. It may help a foreigner
to know what is important to memorize or not. The only thing I know is that
first of all, hiragana are learnt, and then in primary school they learn a set
of kanjis each year.

However, more exactly:

  * at which age are hiragana and katakana learnt?
  * are hiragana and katakana learnt at the same time? Or first hiragana, and then katakana?
  * at which age do they start learning kanjis?
  * how are kanjis learnt? Do they have to memorize five by week?
  * are all the on'yomi readings of a kanji memorized, or not at all?
  * when in secondary school, do they still have to learn other kanjis?
  * ... and any other things about how Japanese children learn how to read and write Japanese




The [curriculum
guidelines](http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shuppan/sonota/990301b/990301d.htm)
for grade one (see 言語事項 section イ) only state that children should be able to
read and write hiragana and katakana, and use words that are written in
katakana in sentences (e.g. know to write ペン not ぺん), and to read and to start
to use the level-appropriate kanji.

As I understand it, instead of memorising individual readings, the focus is
usually on being able to read/read aloud level-appropriate materials, or
supply the correct kanji in the context of a given word in a sentence (e.g.
use the right kanji for the right word when writing assignments). There's also
some focus on stroke order and handwriting.

Materials supplied on the internet for practice, which are aimed at school
children (or their parents), for example [here](http://www.jakka.jp/), which
has various levels of material, tend to use these sort of formats for kanji:
[writing practice](http://www.jakka.jp/page/gra04/4-1r-01.htm) (with
characters to trace over), [reading
practice](http://www.jakka.jp/page/gra04/4-1y-01.htm), more [writing
practice](http://www.jakka.jp/page/gra04/4-1k-01.htm) (give the kanji based on
the furigana).

There are "official" readings (which you will see in sawa's second link in the
comments on dotnetN00b's answer). They are expected to be known, in that words
using those readings should be able to be read, but I've never seen any
material that asks "what are the on-readings of this kanji" aimed at native
speakers.

[This page](http://ten.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/text/shou/keikaku/kokugo.html) has
guidance materials aimed at teachers using certain textbooks. For the first
year version, in this case they start with hiragana, then it looks like they
actually pick up a few kanji, like numerals, before getting into katakana.
(Although to be entirely honest I only skimmed it, and I don't know how
representative the provided plan is of the average class).




The [curriculum
guidelines](http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shuppan/sonota/990301b/990301d.htm)
for grade one (see 言語事項 section イ) only state that children should be able to
read and write hiragana and katakana, and use words that are written in
katakana in sentences (e.g. know to write ペン not ぺん), and to read and to start
to use the level-appropriate kanji.

As I understand it, instead of memorising individual readings, the focus is
usually on being able to read/read aloud level-appropriate materials, or
supply the correct kanji in the context of a given word in a sentence (e.g.
use the right kanji for the right word when writing assignments). There's also
some focus on stroke order and handwriting.

Materials supplied on the internet for practice, which are aimed at school
children (or their parents), for example [here](http://www.jakka.jp/), which
has various levels of material, tend to use these sort of formats for kanji:
[writing practice](http://www.jakka.jp/page/gra04/4-1r-01.htm) (with
characters to trace over), [reading
practice](http://www.jakka.jp/page/gra04/4-1y-01.htm), more [writing
practice](http://www.jakka.jp/page/gra04/4-1k-01.htm) (give the kanji based on
the furigana).

There are "official" readings (which you will see in sawa's second link in the
comments on dotnetN00b's answer). They are expected to be known, in that words
using those readings should be able to be read, but I've never seen any
material that asks "what are the on-readings of this kanji" aimed at native
speakers.

[This page](http://ten.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/text/shou/keikaku/kokugo.html) has
guidance materials aimed at teachers using certain textbooks. For the first
year version, in this case they start with hiragana, then it looks like they
actually pick up a few kanji, like numerals, before getting into katakana.
(Although to be entirely honest I only skimmed it, and I don't know how
representative the provided plan is of the average class).

