Thursday, September 30, 2010

Grammar Lessons with N

N is rounding the corner to three, and especially having been in school for a month now, is talking, talking, talking. Always entertaining. Her language skills are really starting to develop and as we work on them, I've taken the liberty of recording some of her best moments:

On the Tenses…
“What did you do at school today, N?”
“I eat gum!”
“You ate what?”
“I eat gum!”
“Really? Well, it’s “I ate gum, ‘ate’ is the past tense.”
“I ate past tense!”


On Proper Nouns…“We’re the People O’Dells. Let‘s call Mommy O‘Dell.”
“Well, Mommy O’Dell is at work. How about we call her when she’s on her way home from work?”
“Okay!”
“What about Daddy O’Dell?
Nooooo he’s not Daddy O’Dell!”
“He’s not?”
“Nooo he’s Dude O’Dell. That’s my daddy’s name!


“You call me sweet pea?”
“I sure do!”
“Why?”
“Because you’re sweet, and you’re a little pea.”
“Oh. Okay!”


On Modifiers...

Note: We've been playing at the park quite a bit the past week or so, what with the weather so gorgeous and all. One of N's favorite activities is the slide, which she likes to slide down, and the climb back up, and then do it all over again. Sometimes, when she needs a rest, she likes to lay at the bottom of the slide and proclaim, "I'm dead."

"What are you doing, N?"
"I'm dead!"
"Ooooohhh no! What are we gonna do? Maybe tickles will bring you back to life!"
(Laughing, then very serious) "No, don't touch me, I too dead!"
"Too dead for tickles?"
"Yes. I too dead."

"Okay, I not dead anymore!"

On Vocabulary...

"I can't do this, I too little."
"It's I'm too little, and no you're not! You're a big girl!"
"No, it's too wobbly."
"It is crooked, huh?"
"Yeah. It's too crookedebly."

crook-ed-eb-ly: crooked + wobbly + eb?


Side note: One of the reasons for languages changing throughout history has been parents thinking their child's pronunciation of something, or mis-use of words and grammar is cute . . . and it is! But N and I will strive forward towards proper grammar. My favorite grammar rule? Borrowed from my kindergarten teacher, which I still remember to this day, and apparently used to use to correct my own parents: "Cookies are done, children are finished."

No comments:

Post a Comment

Followers