The way a four year old child communicates fascinates me. They are learning sentence formation and grammatical skills. They may not get the words ordered correctly, but they do get their point across.
A cute story about this concept happened in our first week of school.
Thomas* was having trouble with his shoelaces. At the end of circle time, he asked me to please tie his shoe. Some time later in the morning he approached me again; the other shoe had become untied. And then as the morning drew to a close, Thomas came to me for the third time with the same dilemma.
Our quick conversation was a little grammatically off, but he did get the point across. Here is our verbal exchange:
Thomas: “Miss Theresa, can you tie my shoe?”
Me: “Wow. Again?”
Thomas: “I don’t know how they’re un-keeping tied.”
“Un-keeping tied.” I love that!
*child’s name changed
This blog is written by Theresa Young, teacher of 4-year-olds and owner/director of Lenape Kiddie Kollege in Medford, NJ. 28 years with this age group and they still crack me up!