Unfortunately there is only one way and that is to keep learning. Make lists of common characters and memorize them. You should also make flashcards and practice as much as possible. Furthermore you could start to read some simple stuff. Perhaps some of your childhood books have been translated into Chinese. For example, I ordered the Dutch children's books "Jip and Janneke" in Chinese. (乙乙和丫丫) They're quite easy and not too lame for children's books. They seem pretty rare but I guess you could try to buy them here: http://www.zaiton.nl/webshop/jip-en-janneke-yiyi-en-yaya-set-van-5-p-266.html?language=en or here: http://www.amazon.cn/dp/bkbk806411 It has both the characters as well as the pinyin so it's really useful when you're learning the characters. Good luck and 加油！

first step:you must learn "pinyin",because it's very important if you want to have right pronunciation. if you have mastered "pinyin",then you can study words,sentences,phrases ,story and so on. you should have more practise in speaking,reading,writing,listening.... i hope my suggestion is helpful for you.

at the first , you should study it everything, you study chinese, you only study one sentence everyday. read , read ,read, and read, remeber the phrase and repeat it 100 times more till you can bolt out it from your mouth when you want to use it? I am chinese, I can provide some help. my skype account is sz_quzf .

http://writeinchinese.com/ 在这里，你可以学习写汉字

practise,practise and practise