Italian primary school experiences :: {five}

A recent conversation about school with my dear child:

Me: So, what’s your favorite subject these days?

Young One:  We have a new subject, a subject where we do a lot of designing. It’s called grammatica, and I love it. I even have a new quaderno (notebook) for it.

Me: So, are you studying verbs, nouns? I once taught grammar...

Young One: (interrupting with frustration) VERBS? No! That's Italiano. I am designing spaces and things. I am using a riga (ruler) and designing things with centimetri. (She means "drawing.")

Me: Rulers, eh? Do you think perhaps you are studying geometria? We call it geometry in English.

Young One: No. I told you, geografia. You don’t know anything, Mom.  When you bought that piece of furniture over there (gestures to the living room), you measured the space and then told the man exactly the size. That’s what this subject will teach me to do, to buy the right furniture for my house. THAT is geografia. You just don’t know.

Geografia, geometria o grammatica?
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And this is how we interact on matters related to school most days. Yes, I am an experienced and educated teacher. Eight year olds think nothing of credentials. Since I have the tiniest doubt rooted in the fact that I am living outside of my comfort zone together with the fact that a couple of weeks ago she was indeed walking around the house defining geo and grafia (correctly and a foreign language, I might add), I let it go.  I’m waiting for the day that the new notebook makes its way home, when I will promptly set her straight. I think.

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To her credit, she did allow me to help her with the task of creating an outline for a story, and I was able to teach her the difference between a personal narrative and a story with a conflict. I think. Waiting on that notebook, too.
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She really does speak to me mostly in English but always with a bit of Italian vocabulary; I've learned that she usually does this when she doesn't know or is unsure of the English word to use. Usually it's related to school.