May You Please?

Children are learning English as they grow.   Some of the best learning they do is by making mistakes, such as using the wrong tense of a word in a sentence.   We usually say something like, “you can say <insert correct word>”.   They don’t take it as corrections so much as information on what words to use when.  

Sometimes though, children get stuck on a particular phrase or word and don’t want to make a chance.   For instance, when I was little I though you packed your clothes for travel in a, “soup case”.   I was not going to change how I said the word when my other told me, because I though it was silly, who packed suits to go on a trip?  

Eventually I came around as I got older.   My son has a phrase he uses when he wants something.   He’ll might say, “may you please get me my water bottle?”  We’ve suggested he could use ‘would’ or ‘could’ instead of ‘may’.   But not unlike I was at that age, he likes the way he says it and is sticking to it.

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked me the other day, “Mom, do you know the Marianas Trench?”  I said I did, why did he ask?   He had lots of questions about the depths of the ocean and the continental plates.   I really don’t think I was learning about this when I was in second grade.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I came out on the front porch to call my children in for bath and bedtime routine.   Both children were in the tree in the front yard.   My daughter called out from the top limbs, “I’m afraid to say I’m going to have to live up here forever.”   She was not at all stuck.   She said she wanted to sleep in the tree.