Thursday, February 7, 2008

syntax

Me fulminating against slow drivers in the car park this evening (not that I would ever do this) -
Jean (39) - "Why are you taking so long?" (as the slow car in front of us drove away)
Thomas (4) - "You mean why did you took so long, Mummy."
Jean - "So you know the difference between the present tense and the past tense, do you?"
Thomas - "What?"

Thomas commenting on a cold wind sweeping through the car park -
Thomas - "Mummy, that's not a breeze."
Mummy - "What is it then?"
Thomas - "It's a wind. I don't like winds, Mummy. I like breezes."

Thomas and Mummy discussing the wind -
Thomas - "Mummy, when it's hot, the wind makes me warm."
Mummy - "You mean cool. The wind makes you cool."
Thomas - "I know that, Mummy. I already know that."

Thus English grammar makes its way gently into the 4-year old mind.

3 comments:

Rosie said...

Sounds like fun :)
Thanks so much for all your thoughtful posts. I'm a student in the UK, really enjoying reading thoughts of a real-live-older-wiser-christian-mum-type. The at times rather intense and serious-minded theological heavyweight blokes (not for a moment suggesting that you're a theological light-weight) have up until now had the corner on the evangelical blog-roll. It's nice to find something a bit different! Have a lovely day.

Jean said...

Hi, Rosie, LOVELY to meet you, it's so nice to get comments from half a world away!

I totally agree. One of my main goals in writing is to write like a woman, not a man. And while I'm as keen on theology as the next woman/man, and enjoy reading it, I agree blokey blogs/articles can be a bit stodgy at times (sorry, blokes). I love reading things by women (or men for that matter) which do theology and life really well at the same time. See here (go girl!)and here (blokes can do it too). So I'm trying to shake it up a bit!

Glad you're enjoying my blog.

Jean said...

And here's another blog by an aussie you might enjoy if that's what you're looking for (assuming you don't know it already). She has heaps of links to other great blogs by Christian women, too - look at her list of favourites on the right side of her blog and here.

Happy reading!