Rosetta Stone teaches you by showing you images and making you memorize and associate their meaning through the words and sentences. It sort of builds you up to learn the basics of Japanese the same way a person learns there first language, but is extremely effective. It doesn't really teach you any Kana whatsoever though but lets you turn it on during the lession in case you do want practice reading in japanese. I could suggest any number of books about how to write Kana, but they are all really the same, you just have to practice and follow along. However if you have a nintendo DS, try getting a game called Japanese Tutor that lets you use the DS stylus to write Kana and teaches you the strokes which is what im sure you were looking for.