BrainDojo Kids vs Other Ways to Start Handwriting at 3 to 6
Hiro · Game Designer @ StudyXBrainDojo KidsComparison
When a child is somewhere between three and six, letters start to matter, and a parent begins to look at options. A tracing workbook from the bookstore. A free learning app. One of the many letter-tracing apps. Or simply more time at the table with paper, crayons and a board game. BrainDojo Kids is one of those options, and I made it, so I want to lay the choices side by side as fairly as I can.
What BrainDojo Kids is, briefly. It is an iPhone and iPad app for ages 3 to 6. Every course walks the same four steps: trace, copy, write, try. The guide fades a little at each step until the child writes the character alone. Courses cover Hiragana, Katakana, beginner Kanji, the alphabet, numbers, addition and subtraction. Alongside the courses there are short games for counting, memory, mazes, weight comparison and telling the time, and a board game for 2 to 4 players on one device. There are no ads and no account. The free plan gives three Today’s Training activities every day. Premium, monthly or yearly, opens every course, every game, the board game, and the Letters, Writing and My Font tools. The app is available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
Paper Tracing Workbooks
A tracing workbook and a pencil is the classic way in, and for good reason. It is inexpensive, it needs no screen, and the child learns to hold a pencil, which is a skill of its own that no touch screen teaches. Finished pages can go on the fridge.
The difference is in what happens between the lines. A workbook cannot show the order of strokes as they are drawn, and it cannot tell the child anything until an adult looks. BrainDojo Kids draws each stroke as an animated guide and responds as the child writes. It also saves cleared stages and best scores separately for each player, so two siblings can use one device without mixing up their records. I still think a child should write on paper too. The app is a way to practice more often, not a reason to stop using pencils.
Khan Academy Kids
Khan Academy Kids is a free app from the nonprofit Khan Academy for ages 2 to 8. According to its App Store page it has no ads and no subscriptions, and covers early reading, writing, math and social-emotional learning through games, books and videos, including stylus-friendly drawing and tracing. It uses child profiles, can download content for offline use, and reads stories aloud in English and Spanish.
That is a lot for nothing, and I would say so to any parent. Khan Academy Kids is broader than BrainDojo Kids, with books and videos that BrainDojo Kids does not have. BrainDojo Kids is narrower and goes deeper on handwriting: the four-step course structure, Japanese scripts including beginner Kanji, a learning report that counts characters written, and tools like My Font that turn a child’s own handwriting into the app’s font. It also has the family board game, which is a different kind of screen time from a child using an app alone.
Single-Purpose Letter-Tracing Apps
The App Store has many apps that do one thing: trace the alphabet, or trace Hiragana. Features, prices and ad policies vary a lot between them, so I will not generalize beyond that.
A focused tracing app can be exactly right if tracing is all you want. BrainDojo Kids treats tracing as the first of four steps rather than the whole activity, and mixes in counting and memory games so that a session is not only letters. If you are comparing a specific tracing app, the things I would check are whether it has ads, whether it needs an account, whether it keeps records per child, and whether it asks the child to write without the guide at some point.
A Family Board Game or Card Game Night
Some parents are less interested in letters than in time together. For that, a real board game or a deck of cards on the table is hard to beat. Nobody is looking at a screen, the pieces are physical, and a young child practices counting and waiting for a turn without anyone calling it practice.
The BrainDojo Kids board game is a different thing, and I would not claim it is better. It puts 2 to 4 players around one device, with a die, stars and coins, a board layout that changes every match, cooperative challenges, and face-to-face duels played from opposite sides of the screen. The mini games inside it are counting, memory and comparison activities. It is useful when the same device a child uses alone during the day can also become a shared game after dinner. If you would rather keep the tablet out of family time entirely, a physical game is the honest answer.
A Plain Comparison
| BrainDojo Kids | Paper tracing workbook | Khan Academy Kids | Single-purpose tracing apps | Physical board or card game | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stated ages | 3 to 6 | Varies by book | 2 to 8 | Varies | Varies |
| Trace, then write without a guide | Yes, four steps | Varies by book | Varies | Varies | Not applicable |
| Japanese scripts | Hiragana, Katakana, beginner Kanji | Varies by book | Not stated | Varies | Not applicable |
| Play together on one device | Yes, 2 to 4 players | Not applicable | Not stated | Varies | Yes, no device |
| Ads | None | None | None | Varies | None |
| Account | Not needed | Not needed | Uses child profiles | Varies | Not needed |
| Cost | Three free activities a day, Premium monthly or yearly | Price of the book | Free | Varies | Price of the game |
| Daily time limit for parents | Yes, with a lock screen | Not applicable | Not stated | Varies | Not applicable |
Information on Khan Academy Kids is from its App Store page as of September 2026.
When Another Option Is the Better Choice
If you want a free app that covers reading, stories, math and more for a wide age range, Khan Academy Kids is the more complete choice, and it costs nothing.
If you want your child to learn to hold a pencil, or you want no screen time at all at this age, paper workbooks are simpler and do something no app can.
If your child only needs the English alphabet traced, a focused tracing app may be enough.
If what you want is an evening together, a physical board game does it without a device on the table.
BrainDojo Kids fits best when you want a handwriting routine built around trace, copy, write and try, in Japanese scripts or the alphabet or both, with separate records for each child, no ads and no account, and a board game for when the family is all in one room.
Where to Go Next
The BrainDojo Kids page has screenshots and the full feature list. The getting started guide walks through a first session, the practical tips cover daily use, and who the app is for describes the families it suits.
The free plan’s three daily activities are enough to see how your child takes to it.
