Upper Case

When AKD was an itty bitty, we taught him to write his name.  In upper case letters.  Because that's what people do.  Because, in general, upper case letters are easier (although, thinking about the letters in his name, it's about the same either way).

Then he went to school and his teacher said that now he had to unlearn the way he had learned to write his name so he could write in the right way: first letter upper case, followed by lower case.  Like this: Akdblue.  Ak!  What a horrible mommy I was, to teach my child the wrong way to write his name.  The things we never think to be worried about...

Right then and there I vowed that my future child(ren) would learn the right way from the beginning. 

With MC, I was successful.  Bucking conventional baby-writing methods, I insisted that he, from the beginning, use an upper case first letter, followed by lower case: Mcblue.

Now, my baby Bubby.  He's 4, you know.  All of his friends can write their names (in all upper case letters).  Valentine's day is coming up, and you know what that means: his teacher thinks this is the perfect occasion for the kidlets to practice writing their names (ohmyword, the struggles we had on V-day when MC was in kindergarten...and first grade).  He's getting better, he really is, but the formation of a couple of his letters evades him. 

The problem? 

"e" 

It's a difficult letter to write.  You have to start in the middle and curve, and keep curving, the correct way, and it just never turns out right.  "E", on the other hand, is so much easier.  Just 4 straight lines.  One of the other letters in his name is significantly easier in upper case as well.

So, on Monday, after several illegible V-tines attempts, I gave in.  I printed his name in all upper case letters for him to copy: ROGER.  And he did it.  But now...now he's going to have to unlearn it.  What a terrible mommy I am.  Again.

Funny story: Bubby and I talk about upper and lower case letters a lot, probably more than the average mommy and 4 year old, about whether a letter he recognizes is upper or lower case and how they're the same letter, just written differently.  But Bubby calls them upper case and downer case :)  Is this one downer case, mommy?  So cute!  Makes sense, right?  Down is the opposite of up.