Say What You Mean

I can be a very literal person, especially when I'm working on something.  Sometimes I need to hear directions a few times.  It's because I want to do things right and exactly the way you envisioned when you gave me the directions.  I have found out that 3 1/2 year olds are very literal too....

This is an example:

Aliza drew this during art.  She was following my directions while we were working on drawing shapes and lines.

Here were some of my directions...

I said "draw a thick line down your paper," and Aliza created the very dark line on the right side.

I said "draw a wavy line down your paper" and Yaya created the CrAzY line to the left of that dark line.

These were the kinds of directions I was giving.  I was also telling her to draw shapes, as you can see.

The last thing I told her to draw was, "a circle with a thick line."  Now, when I said this I was intending for her to draw a thick-lined circle.  But this is what she heard:

She drew them as a pair.  The orange circle and her friend "Thick Line."