3.5 year old starting to tell lies, what do you do as "punishment"?

[astragirl]

he's only recently started doing this,twice today already! We give him a few minutes time out on the stairs to think about it and talk to him afterwards about why it's wrong to tell lies, but don't think it's sinking in. What do you all do? we really want to nip it in the bud before it gets worse.

What sort of lies is he telling? My DD1 is about the same age and often lies about things, but at this age I think it has more to do them not really being able to distinguish between what is real and what isn't. They have such strong imaginations thatoften that gets confused with reality.

I tend to just ignore the lies, for example if I see she has pushed DD2 over I don't ask her what happened I just tell her off for doing it, even if she says she didn't.

Punishment? I usually just laugh and say, oh, you're just telling a silly story.

My DD lies a lot, she is now 4. I think it is part of their development to be honest and I don't punish. I talk and say that it isn't appropriate and what I would like more than anything is the truth. I've had to explain what the truth is quite a lot to be honest, it is quite a hard concept to grasp at that age.

Yes, they get confused. Ds will tell people his dad has a motorbike, because he wishes he did. He told his preschool teacher that he used to live in Paris. When I asked him why he said that, he said because he speaks French ( very little btw).