David has been wrestling with the construction of interrogative responses such as:
WE ASK: David, why did you throw those apples on the floor.
DAVID RESPONDS: That’s why, I wanted to see if they would bounce.
WE REALIZE: Ah ha! That’s why David has been saying "that’s why!" in response to almost any question lately. It’s his version of "because!"
WE EXPLAIN: While it makes sense that the response to "why" is "that’s why", the standard response — at the front of a sentence — to "why" is "because." Or you could say "that’s why" at the end of the sentence.
ME TO KRIS: Honey, why are you wearing a sweater.
KRIS: Because I’m cold.
We went on with this for a few minutes, asking a lot of why and because questions, David laughing at the new game. Now he’s hooked on "why-because" sentence constructions and is looking for excuses to use them everywhere.
I cannot get over how cool it is to watch someone learn language (not a new language, but any language) from scratch. So many amazing, creative things happen with words when one doesn’t have a set of rules on using them. His invention of "that’s why" as a clause positioned at the start of a sentence in place of "because", as opposed to "that’s why" at the end of a sentence (which he doesn’t hear much, if at all, since it’s not a construction Kris or tend to use) just seems brilliant to me. Then again, I’m pretty biased. And in a way, all kids minds are brilliant, especially when it comes to learning and creating and especially when compared to atrophied old brains like mine.
