DD has taught herself how to write all letters (upper and lowercase) - I have never 'taught' her, and she says they don't do it at Childcare/Kinder - but she can write them all I think - judging by the words she writes. She loves drawing and she doesn't distinguish between drawing and writing, so assume she has just picked it up by copying letters just like she does pictures, and now can visualize how each letter should look) However at a friends today she found these cards which had letters on them and showed the order of the strokes to create the letter - for quite a few of them DD did not use how was prescribed on the card (or how I would do it either) e.g. uppercase M.

I was talking to friend and she said that schools in VIC use a prescribed script - so letters are formed in a certain way.

So am curious does it matter how you form an M for example - surely as long as it looks like an M that is the main thing - the order of the strokes might be helpful if you are learning but if you already have worked out how to write an M in a different way can it matter? Are there particular ideas/theories about why an r should have a 'tail' etc. etc.