@cbleslie Great. I can give you some advice. First, if you mix up der/die/das it may sound funny to native speakers but everybody will understand what you are saying. So don't worry too much about it. It comes by time and by itself. Second, be aware capital characters can change the meaning of a word so better focus on this in the beginning.

For instance this sentence: "Der gefangene Floh." and "Der Gefangene floh." have completele different meanings. In my experience this can have more impications in using the language than der/die/das etc.