Rhyme and Reason

I'll often indulge in gentle wordplay with my five-year-old — usually rhyming or alliteration, a habit acquired from years of reading Dr. Seuss together. (His favorite books have been read so often they're falling apart.) He's beginning to respond with his own contributions, following my lead.

(I seem to recall him doing this when he was younger, and a therapist having been concerned by it for some reason or other — I'm not sure why.)

Every so often, he'll tell these implausible, convoluted tales of things he'd done or seen during the day at school. I can usually coax the truth out of him (or sort it out for myself), but the tales he tells are far too entertaining not to let them play out.

This is one of those instances where I wish I had more experience with kids. Do most five-year-olds do this?