Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Gummy Bag

Dear readers, I have a story to tell. It starts out in Joy School, the co-op preschool my daughter and I are doing. Joy school has been very good for Charlotte, but this last unit, on order and goal striving, has been awesome for everyone in the family (read: me). For some reason these lessons have really hit home, especially about order. Put everything in it's place. And do you want to know why it has hit home for her?

The Gunny Bag.

This is a fictitious character created by the people that made up Joy School. Every home has a Gunny Bag that lives in a closet or the attic or some out of the way place that comes out during down times and likes to eat toys that are left out! There's even a couple of songs that go along with it. (And thanks to this lesson I go around cleaning the house with them stuck in my head. For three days!)

When explaining this to the girls I had purposefully left out a few toys and then had the homemade gunny bag eat them. The girls understood, but Charlotte wasn't too happy. Apparently I had chosen wrong and the Gunny Bag ate a beloved dollar store doll. Later the Gunny Bag told me that he thought the doll was yucky and didn't want it in his tummy. The Gunny Bag does occasionally give toys back, but if he eats them twice they're gone for good. When I explained this Charlotte was much happier with the idea of the "Gummy Bag." (She must have misheard, but I think Gummy Bag is funnier than Gunny Bag so I'm not going to correct her.)

All day the next day Charlotte went around our house saying, "We don't want the Gummy Bag to eat this." And then would put it away!

Then, silly mommy, left the Gunny Bag out instead of putting it away and do you want to know what that little smartie did? She tore the eyes off the Gunny Bag. When I asked her why she would do that she said, "Then he can't see my toys left out."

Such a problem solver.

PS. Daddy told her that the Gunny Bag can smell the toys left out. There's not getting around the Gunny Bag. Also, now if I say, "Is your room in order?" she will go around putting all her stuff away. Isn't that amazing?

7 comments:

Mindy said...

Seems logical, if you tear the eyes off, then the nasty ol' gummy bag can't eat your toys.
-g

Behrmans said...

Cleaver little thing! What does this bag look like? Think we might need one here. Though our place has been such a mess that everything would be eaten and there would be nothing left.

Dan's mom said...

I think you need to talk to Heather about raising Carson - Charlotte seems to have some of his "reasoning" skills. Don't ever buy her a fake snake....It's a good thing Dan was quick on his feet with an answer for the missing eyes.

Janelle Dobson said...

Hmmmm...need to get me one of those gunny bags.

Maggie said...

The gunny bag is EASY. All you need is an old pillow case/laundry bag and wiggly eyes. Hot glue the wiggly eyes on and the opening of the bag is the mouth. My laundry bag has a draw string which was cool because then the mouth was smaller, but totally not necessary.

Katie said...

Dude, she STUNNS me with how smart she is.

Nurse Graham said...

Well, she is going to give you a run for the money that's for sure. It's a good thing she's so dang cute.