Back in August, when an English friend guided me through the shopping trip for school supplies, I noticed that there were all sorts of new writing materials -- a slate with sponge and chalk, different colored ballpoints, cartridge pens -- so it was obvious the kids were going to be spending a lot more time on handwriting than they were used to.
Within a month, Nellie was writing like this
And now, in February, she's writing like this
Needless to say, entire forests have been sacrificed for the paper necessary to show off those capital letters. The house is inundated. But I admire all of it immensely. To me, French handwriting is emblematic of France, because it assumes that efficiency is not all that matters. It requires both a Cartesian precision and beauty, and every French child learns to do it.
Julian's copybook is at school at the moment, so I'll add pictures of his transformation later.
