Handwriting in Italy...

This is a post that might not be all that interesting (to anyone but Laura), but a note I wanted to document. Yesterday, we had a conference with Maya's team of teachers (Italian, English, and German). They seem like a fantastic group of teachers, and, after just a few days, they appear to know Maya already. (We did have a discussion in which they said they already noticed that she really liked art and music and acting, and I said "Yes, she's very ... dramatic." And everyone laughed heartily as though they got the double entendre...)

Anyway, this post is about handwriting. The Italian teacher explained to us yesterday that, when writing in Italian, it is not customary to use a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters.  On the other hand, script writing is not uncommon, and something they begin teaching in third grade. But the script is different than the cursive taught in the US. We made a group decision that learning to write this script was probably too much for Maya (just learning to speak and write some Italian, generally, should be the primary goal). So the joint decision was taken that Maya would write Italian in all caps (which is common here) but she would continue to write English in the mix of lower and upper cases taught in the US (mostly because her fourth grade teacher in Texas will not want her writing in all caps!).

We explained this to Maya over dinner last night, but not before she wrote her journal entry for yesterday. What I typed onto her blog is the following (yes, I correct her spelling before posting; it's an agreement Maya and I have):

What did you do today? We played an opposite game with Milena. The words were: together, alone, slow, fast, tall, short, far, near, night, day, inside, outside, heavy, light, in front, behind, big, small, hot, and cold. We also did pass the ball to your partner. And then we watched a movie. And now we will have dinner.

Here's an attempt to recreate exactly what Maya wrote:

What did you do TODAY? We PLAYED A OPESET game with MELANA. The werds were: together, alone, SLOw, fast, TALL, short, Far, near, Night, day, inside, outside, heavy, light, in front, behind, big, small, hot, and cOLD. WE ALSO did PASS The baLL to your parner. AND THEN WE WAChed a Movie AND NOW WE Will have diner.

The entry for the day before is similarly capitalized. The one before that is "correctly" capitalized (i.e., the way Maya had been taught up to a week ago). The point being that, though I hadn't noticed, Maya had already started switching. To me, this says that her teachers are attuned to things that might be confusing her even if Maya isn't noticing. More importantly, perhaps, this means Maya must be paying attention in school!