Learning kanji is a lot more do-able than you might think, but there's no way around it: you've got to commit yourself to a long-term learning program. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing unpleasant or grueling about it - kanji are just plain beautiful, and the way the radicals combine makes the more complicated characters into strange little glyphs of composite meaning. I use Quia flashcards to drill in the characters, taking care to practice both the ON and kun readings, in addition to the English meanings. These flashcards, including video flashcards, are free for you to use, and will help you get up to speed on your first thousand kanji.  For practice writing kanji, I used to use practice sheets I made myself. But for the most part, I now use Lexikan. If you are at all serious about learning Japanese, you should get this inexpensive program. When you do, you can use the Lexikan flashcard sets I've already made up (which match my Quia flashcard sets) or you can make your own.

Sullydog's Kanji Resources

Grade One Kanji

Semester 1 Quia 

Semester 2 Quia

Semester 3 Quia

Semester 4 Quia

Grade I Video Flashcards

Grade Two Kanji

Semester 1 Quia

Semester 2 Quia

Semester 3 Quia

Semester 4 Quia

Grade 2 Video Flashcards

Grade Three Kanji

Semester 1 Quia

Semester 2 Quia

Semester 3 Quia

Semester 4 Quia

Grade 3 Video Flashcards

Grade Four Kanji

Semester 1 Quia

Semester 2 Quia

Semester 3 Quia

Semester 4 Quia

Grade 4 Video Flashcards

Grade Five Kanji

Semester 1 Quia

Semester 2 Quia

Semester 3 Quia

Semester 4 Quia

Grade 5 Video Flashcards

Grade Six Kanji

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Semester 2 Quia

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Semester 4 Quia

Grade 6 Video Flashcards

Kanji Gold

A comprehensive kanji study package with one humungo shortcoming: you can't search the damn thing! But it's free, and beggars can't be choosers.

Kanji School

The Grade-Semester setup I use is based on the Kanji School presentation. But I use other references, too, because some of KS's readings are a bit off.

J Quick Trans

Here's an extremely powerful and versatile program, absolutely essential to serious students of Japanese. Worth the moolah. Get it.

Anki

A Palm-based flashcard program, very useful for making up kanji sets to study on the go.

Hanabi

Another Palm application, with a sweet interface that's fun to use.

Kanji Pict-O-Grafix

A book full of mnemonics to help you remember about 1,000 kanji.

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