Here comes Gunny Man…

Anyone who has ever been in Joy School as a preschooler probably remembers the song: Here Comes Gunny Man. Gunny man (referring to a Gunny sack), comes & eats up any toys that are left out. This just motivates children to clean-up, so that they don’t loose their toys. Well, I have been having problems recently with trying to get Marlee to remember to clean-up after herself. Which made remember the Gunny Man. I decided to turn a pillow case into Gunny Man, hoping this would motivate Marlee to put up her toys. When I explained who the Gunny Man was & that she would start loosing her toys if she didn’t clean them up, she freaked. Not about the cleaning up part, about the Gunny man. She saw that pillow case & it scared her ( I know, my art isn’t great) & she started asking who he was & where I was going to put him, etc. She was a frightened mess. I didn’t want to drop the whole idea, but I knew I would give her nightmares if I didn’t think of something fast. I asked her if I should make a new one, a girl instead. She liked that idea & asked me to name it Belle & put her in a yellow dress. I’m pretty sure Belle looks as freaky as my first attempt. Too bad I am not as creative as my sister Laura. Anyways,  I informed her that Belle loves for everything to be clean & that she would get Marlee’s toys that were left out (put them in the pillow case). I let Marlee know that to earn her toys back she would have to do chores. She told me that she doesn’t know how to do chores & wondered if her toys would be sent to DI (ha ha). Finally, Marlee agreed to all this & I think it will actually work. Wow…girls are so different than boys!