Mumsnet Little Italy 6

[Rosa]

Ciao , Hello , Welcome .

I liked Beverly Hills 90210! Didn't fancy anyone though. I'm packing my bags, very slowly, it's too hot! Have wathced bits of Gialappa's, the imitatore of tiziano ferri makes me laugh

ferro

I never got the hang of MNing and watching tv.
Nice to see you back Hothell, and sad to hear what you were saying about the south. It has always amazed me actually the differences between North and South here. I think the whole country has been belt-tightening recently but it must be worse for those already worse off.

DD is on her last week of scuola materna, and came home with all the "work" she has done all year. Lovely to see it but I am also angry as I had exempted her from "catholic education" and it's now clear she did at least some as there is a folder full of stuff, including a crucifixion scene, which I'm really unhappy about. DH is livid. There is only 1 other kid exempted (out of 70 odd), they obviously couldn't be bothered to take them out.

Don't mean to offend if any of you are catholics btw, but neither of us is from a catholic background, and I feel it's just inappropriate really, especially discussing crucifixion with a 3 year old.

Sputnik ! And since when do they have RE at nursery school ? No one's mentioned to me, not even yesterday when I took dd to pre-inserimento kind of thing (she's been at private lay scuola materna until today. going to council one in sept).
Both me and dh aren't religious but have signed ds to do religione next year (primary), as no one was able to tell me what those opting out did in that hour. I regretted that decision one minute after signing, so I'm thinking I should sign him out again ... mind you ds enjoyed RE in England. But then again, church of England is miles away from catholics. I'm signing him out.

no I don't wathc tv either when mnetting, tv is in the other room.

have a nice holiday franca!

Yes, have a great holiday Franca!

Sputnik - I signed the no religion thing for my DD too and, this being Catholic bigotsville, I'm sure she'll be the only one or at the very least in a tiny group (I think there's a Muslim boy in her year). Unfortunately they do teach religion at this age, which I find wholly inappropriate as they don't just vaguely explain Xmas and Easter but appear to go for a full on indoctrination and it is solely the Catholic religion they push. If they taught RE to explain all the world's religions I'd have less of an argument with it, but alas no.

One of the Catholic private schools I visited had Religione the whole of Friday afternoon. I never had that much RE when at my Catholic high school. Also, judging from my friends' experiences they start approaching you in the last year at materna about catechismo and doing your 1st communion and give you grief about your child being left out because they're not baptised.

Anyway, rant over.

Is it true that they give you grief if you child already knows how to count or the alphabet? A friend of mine got told off about that at her materna open day a few months ago because her little boy is very bright and can count to 100 and knows all his letters already. Apparently it's not following the curriculum and the child risks becoming bored. But surely a bright child will pick it up in 5 minutes and get bored anyway, so I don't see the logic. By the same logic maybe I shouldn't teach my DD English in case she gets bored in her English classes.

Boh!

Grazie , I'm still here, the train is at 18. I just hope the a/c will work.

Never heard anything like giving grief if they already know the alphabet, plus I don't really get this whole thing about being "bored" at school. Surely it is quite normal to be bored at school, at times, regardless of the lever of intelligence. What I know is that primary teachers tend - on average - to discourage starting primary at 5, as most of the times the children aren't emotionally ready to face a whole day of class work (prima elementare is more full on than English reception).

I don't think they can do much with us in terms of catechismo as the children aern't baptized.

beige giaccone for franca, and with HOOD? it sounds horrid, i am sure that's what made it difficult to make friends, dear franca, beige is just a big nooooonooooo....
jokes apart, i really wish they kept religion out of school completely the way they do in france, and that is that!
really nothing on telly last night...

That's exactly what I thought too. I spent most of my earlier schooldays being bored out of my mind, at least until we were streamed in high school. It's perfectly normal, especially if you get a crappy teacher. It's just that DP confirmed what my friend had been told so I got all indignant and warrior-like.

Have you booked cuccette or wagoni (sp?) letto?

Ooh, esselunga man's here. How exciting!

Is he a scamarcio lookalike?

The beige giaccone was quite ugly, but perfect -imo- for exeter's weather...

I have experienced boredom occassionally throughout my career... those endless hours of philosophy, for instance (don't tell my husband). But over all, I've always loved school, especially the "social" side of it, and have met a good number of teachers I liked a lot.
I think that over all in Italy teaching your pre-school children to read and write is not that popular, also because it's pretty straight forward to learn it in prima elementare. I think my children are quite clever and extremely curious but have never shown any interest in learning their letters, so I don't feel the need for nursery school to teach the alphabet etc. I'd probably feel different if my children had different inclinations. They seem extremely satisfied with colouring, singing, chatting and basically messing around.

Brange, when I took ds to visit his new primary his "tutor" introduced to him the English teacher and ds said "I speak English already", "Marvellous -she said - you'll help your schoolmates", which I think was the right thing to say.

Alas no, however for a peruviano he wasn't bad.

Agree if your children are not inclined, but the little boy I was talking about is that way inclined, you give him fridge magnets or pen and paper and he spends all afternoon making up series of numbers or trying to draw letters. He's not interested in colouring and his mum is sooo not pushy. So I don't understand why she should get told off for her DS being a bit different from the norm, she was quite upset, poor thing.

Lol at your DS, and what a nice teacher with the right attitude.

Hit, please don't complain about English telly as it will fall on deaf ears here. Did you not see any of the offerings when you were over? Or were you too busy eating pizza?.

Hit? I meant Hothell....

Yes, I don't want to hear moanings about English tv, I miss it

Hothell, did you see Il Divo per chance in Italy?

Brangelina, it is quite upsetting. Unfortunately Italian schools aren't still ready to cope with individual needs. Mind you, nursery schools now have classes of different ages, couldn't the little boy (who I gather) must be three work with the ledest in the class? they do letters, write things with the 5 yrs old.

oldest

I would have thought so, but apparently it's a problem as then he would run out of things to do. This is in Milano btw, at Arena where I would have sent my DD had we still lived there, so I was quite surprised (I would've almost expected it in Monza). Maybe he'll get a good teacher when he does start.

Am already getting all battagliera in case anyone makes any comments about DD already knowing her alphabet in English....

As I said, it is because schools in Italy are more prepared to give what the majority needs and not the individual, and given that the majority of 3 yrs old is not interested in letters, they don't do letters with 3 yrs old....

The private nursery school that the dc attended this year was fantastic, had lots of activities, creta, musica, building things with cartone, visit to thatres, museums, followed a topic (il mare) for a whole yr etc, but didn't do much in terms of reading and writing and parents are absolutely ok with it.

have a great holiday Franca
Che caldo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Heard rumours is hitting 41 degrees in Roma
Am wilting !!!!!!

Yes, it's boiling. I'll probably sit in the sea for the next 10 days... . I hear it's going to cool down a bit on friday

So how long are you going for?

I just remembered why I never buy veg online - my tomatoes and albicocche are too soft and squashed. I hate ripe tomatoes, I'll have to make sugo with them now. sigh....

Dunno, we haven't booked the train back...

Brangelina, I bought the nicest sweetest cherry tomatoes at the market in via tabacchi. Plus today we ate the fagiolini of ds's orto, they were so sweet he stuffed his face!

I think around the 10th.

I must go now, ciao!

Ciao!

at the scuola materna by the way Sputnik

what would you guys do
Got to book transport for our summer holiday on Lago di Como. We don't have car so options are either train from Rome to Milano and then Milano Varenna where we are staying
Or
Taxi to airport, Ryanair flight to Bergamo, hire a car and drive to Varenna
What's the most appealing way to travel with a 22 mth old as ds will be?