Anonymous wrote:It's lying, not laying. You lie in bed today, you lay in bed yesterday. Lay is the past tense of lie.
Probably around age 5.
you are correct, but it's a very incomplete lesson if you don't also explain that lay is the transitive verb, and lie is the non-transitive. it just also so happens that lay is the past tense of the non-transitive lie, and laid is the past tense of the transitive. meanwhile, laid is the past perfect transitive, while lain is the past perfect non-transitive.
OP - We never did that with our kids, other than for maybe reading a book or two.