Say Please

My children have a tendency to ask for more food at the table by sliding their plate, bowl, or cup to either my husband or me, or directly at the serving dish. Sometimes no words accompany this action, or if they do they are usually a statement like, "Juice." Or "I want some pancakes."

I've been trying to teach them the polite way to ask for more. I will usually say, "what do you say?" I then usually hear, "please." For a while that was good enough, but I have since started trying to teach them to use a complete sentence. Like, "Please can I have some more pancakes." That kind of thing.

Well this morning, Guy wanted some syrup on his pancakes. He slid his plate across the table, and didn't say anything. When I didn't respond he shouted, "I WANT SYRUP!"
"What do you say?"
"Please."
"Please, what?"
"Please." pause for a moment, "please."
"Guy, say please can I have syrup," said Cinderella. "Say, please"
"Please,"
"can I," pause no response, "say please can I"
"can I, please can I"
"Have some syrup."
"Have some syrup."

Then later he wanted some more pancakes. We went through this whole thing all over again. Only this time when Cinderella prompted him to say, "Please can I have some more pancakes." His response was "Please, I WANT MORE PANCAKES." Oh well I guess it is a work in progress.