The potty words - we said them back to the kids and then said, "what is funny about it?"
Example - "You said 'bum'? Why is that funny? You have a bum, I have a bum, everybody has a bum. So why bother talking about it? It's not really polite, but it's also not funny. It just IS. Now let's talk about something else. You want to learn about funny? Then try THIS on for size..." and I then teach the kid some age-appropriate jokes, usually puns (because kids that age LOVE puns, especially ther obvious corny stuff). And the more jokes you teach them, the more they take to school and use back on the kids trying to be funny by saying silly words.
I remember teachnig easy child some limericks. Because she was going to an inner-city school (a bit of a ghetto area) I had given up on worrying about language. So I included the one about the young man from Australia. A year or so later when we moved her to the village school she told that one to her teacher. He took me aside and said, "Did you know she was telling this limerick? She stood up and said it in class, said you had taught her. Is that true?"
I admitted it was, then told him a limerick that I wouldn't tell my kids until they were 18.
He saw the difference and was OK with it after that.
But there are some great limericks for little kids. Although Janet, she may not yet be ready for them. But in a couple of years, let me know and I'll send you some for her. Clean ones.
For now, you need jokes like, "Why did the mouse leave home?"
"Because his father was a rat."
Or a joke a friend of ours invented when she was 3 -
"What do you use to cut wood with under the ocean?"
"A sea saw".
Or is that tricky? In Australia we call the playground equipment a see-saw, I believe other people call it a teeter-totter.
But potty words - not funny. We didn't react with shock, we didn't react with disgust or with laughter. None of the "oh, it's cute" because it very quickly is NOTcute. Instead, we reacted with boredom and re-education. And we taught our kids to be quickly condescending about potty words, a sort of, "Oh, that was SOOOOO last week... I am so grown up now, I'm far too mature for such silly stuff; after all, I'm almost three years old, I've only got 11 months to go."
I'm not a grandma yet, Janet. Not sure when that will happen. At least another year, and then a few more years before this is a problem.
I can't wait...
Marg