墨泡

For kids with a weekly Chinese word list

Chinese characters, written from memory.

Serious daily practice on your child's own school word list. Every stroke is checked, words come back for review before they're forgotten, and a practice 听写 is marked the way school marks it.

And kids ask for five more minutes.

Start the free pilot

Free during the pilotNo payment detailsMade by a Chinese teacher of 10 years

Stroke by strokemò pào

How Inkpop teaches

Four habits of a good Chinese teacher, every night

  1. Written by hand

    Kids write every character with a finger or stylus. Each stroke is checked for shape and order, not just tapped from a menu.

  2. From memory

    Hints fade as a word gets stronger, until your child writes the whole word with nothing to copy.

  3. Spaced review

    Each word returns after 1, 3 and 7 days. Miss a review and it drops back a stage, so nothing quietly slips away.

  4. Tested like school

    A practice 听写: hear the word, write it, get it marked all at once. A word only counts as mastered after it passes one.

The part parents don't expect

Serious practice they actually ask for.

“Oh, I've got to study Chinese!”
The first thing they say when they get home from school
“Dad, can I please have five more minutes?”
Most nights

45–90

minutes of Chinese a night

We have to tell them to stop so they'll go to sleep.

Real quotes from our first testers: Justin's own three kids.

The Write it! screen on a tablet: 劳动 (láodòng, labor) being written stroke by stroke in a practice grid, with Pao Pao saying Stroke 4 of 7, keep going, and buttons for Listen, Show me, Outline and Parts.

Write it!: every stroke checked as it's written

上下五千年Five thousand years

The oldest writing still in use, in your child's hand.

The 马 in this week's homework was first carved on oracle bones more than 3,000 years ago. Every character carries a story like that. When kids see where their words come from, they feel it in their bones: this isn't homework, it's their heritage.

3,000 years in one horse

  1. The beginning
    A pictureMane, legs and tail: a horse
  2. 3,000+ years ago
    Oracle boneCarved on bone to ask the ancestors
  3. 2,200 years ago
    Seal scriptOne script for a newly united China
  4. Brush and ink
    馬
    TraditionalStill written in Taiwan and Hong Kong
  5. Today
    马
    SimplifiedThe one in your child's textbook
Coming soon

A history game where kids watch their own words travel through time, from bone to brush to the page in front of them.

Ancient forms are simplified sketches for illustration.

兴趣是最好的老师

“Interest is the best teacher.”

Why I built Inkpop

Made by a Chinese teacher who got tired of the homework fight.

My kids crammed for every test and forgot it all a week later. By junior high they still had to look up 去 and 五. In ten years of teaching, I learned that kids remember what they get to use and create with, not what they drill. Using these methods, my classes reached:

  • HSK 1after 2 months
  • HSK 2by year 2
  • HSK 3by year 3

Inkpop puts the same approach in your child's hands. No more sitting beside them wondering why they still can't write 十.

Justin, Chinese teacher, parent of three and the maker of Inkpop

Why most Chinese practice doesn't stick

Kids cram for Friday. By Monday it's gone.

The usual way

  • Write the same character 20 times
  • Memorize shapes with no idea why they look that way
  • Robotic voices, wrong tones, wrong readings for 多音字
  • One accent for everyone
  • Nothing that makes them want to come back tomorrow
  • Forgotten once the test is over

With Inkpop

  • Write each word from memory, with every stroke checked
  • Learn the parts: what gives the meaning, what gives the sound
  • Natural voices, real tone changes, the right reading for 多音字
  • Mainland, Taiwan or Cantonese, to match your child's class
  • Streaks and rewards that bring them back every day
  • Old words come back until they're written from memory

Characters make sense

Every character has a reason.

Most characters are a meaning part plus a sound part. Once kids see it, new characters stop being random squiggles. Tap one:

Same sound part, 马 mǎ. Different meaning part each time.

Tones, done right

Same sound, five meanings.

Kids hear every word from natural Mandarin voices, with the tone changes real speakers make.

Two third tones

你好 nǐ hǎo → ní hǎo

Two dips in a row: the first one rises.

一 changes

一样 yíyàng · 一天 yìtiān

一 shifts its tone depending on what comes next.

不 changes

不对 bù duì → bú duì

不 rises before a falling tone.

Hear the voices:

Built to remember, not to cram

Every word grows from a seed to a tree.

Help fades as your child improves. Words from weeks ago come back for review before they're forgotten.

  1. MeetWatch the strokes and trace
  2. TryWrite it, each stroke checked
  3. RecallNo pinyin, no hints
  4. Free writeThe whole word from memory
  5. MasteredHear it, write it

The parent view

You'll know which words are sticking.

Five minutes to set up, and you don't need to speak Chinese.

A weekly report

Minutes practiced, words newly mastered, 听写 scores and the three words to watch, for each child.

Paste this week's list

Pinyin and meanings fill themselves in. 多音字 let you pick the right reading.

Your class's Chinese

Mainland or Taiwan Mandarin, or Cantonese with jyutping. Simplified or traditional.

Every device in sync

Sign in once on each tablet or phone. Progress follows each child.

No kid passwords

A parent signs in. Kids just tap their own avatar.

Ten minutes a day

Little and often beats a Thursday-night cram. Streaks reward showing up daily.

兴趣是最好的老师 · Interest is the best teacher

Practice you can check.

Every activity runs on your child's own word list, and every answer shows up in the parent view. The fun is how we keep them coming back, not a break from the work.

A marked 听写: 90%, 4 of 5 words all right. Each word shows the child's handwriting in green with a tick, and the one missed character in red with the correct form behind it.

Dictation 听写

Hear the word, write it from memory, then get the whole 听写 marked at once, like at school.

The Parent dashboard weekly report for a child named Mei: practiced 62 minutes on 4 days, mastered 1 new word and averaged 77% on 3 听写s, stamped Good, steady week, with a practice-each-day chart against the daily goal and each 听写 result.

A weekly report

Minutes practiced, words mastered, 听写 scores and the words that need review, every week, for each child.

The Parent dashboard 听写 tests page: the next school 听写 on Thursday with a 36% ready ring, today's step, a plan for each day up to test day, a Print a paper 听写 button, and a score history chart climbing from 55 to 100.

Ready for test day

Enter the date of the next school 听写. Inkpop plans the week, prints a paper practice sheet and charts every score.

The Brain Garden: each word of Lesson 4 is a plant labelled seed, sprout, bud, flower or tree, with today's watering list of words due for review.

Brain Garden

Every word is a plant that grows from seed to tree. Reviews come due like watering, so nothing quietly fades.

Plus Tone Surfer for the tones, Brush Duel for siblings, a daily streak and 70+ trophies.

Start the free pilot

Built with kids

Kids tell us what's fun. We build it.

An ideas button in every game

Kids send their ideas straight to us, and we read every one.

140+
Updates so far

We use the latest AI tools to ship fixes and new content almost every day.

Kids' ideas, shipped

The daily streak, quests and the whole Paws & Claws pet game started as kids' ideas.

Free pilot · small group

Real practice tonight. No fight about it.

We're keeping the pilot small so we can read every family's feedback. Try it free and help shape it.

Start the free pilot tonight

No payment details. Nothing to cancel: if it doesn't click, just stop.

  1. Open Inkpop on your child's tabletAdd it to the home screen so it opens like an app.
  2. Tap “Set up our family”Add each child and paste this week's word list.
  3. Ten minutes a dayThen watch the parent view fill up.

Questions

Good to know

Is it just a game?

No. Every activity practices your child's own word list: writing characters from memory with each stroke checked, reading, listening and a 听写 marked like school. The rewards are there so they come back tomorrow.

Do I need to speak Chinese?

No. Pinyin and English meanings fill in when you add words, and every word is read aloud.

What does it run on?

Tablets, with a finger or a stylus. It also runs in the browser on phones and computers.

How much does it cost?

It's free during the pilot. Pilot families will hear well ahead of any paid plan.

Who is it for?

Kids learning to read and write Chinese characters at school, weekend Chinese school, a bilingual program or at home.

Who made Inkpop?

Justin, a Chinese teacher with ten years in elementary and junior high classrooms and a parent of three. Justin's own kids test every new game first.

What happens to our data?

Progress is saved to your family account so it syncs between devices. When writing is checked, only the pen strokes are sent to a handwriting recognizer, never names.