Heres my hunny putting the new bed together. 
Our oldest is helping.
Attaching it to the headboard. THe first head board we've had in about 6 years. LOL
All done! Its so pretty!
My youngest just doesn't get it. I have done everything I can think of from rewards to consequences to get him to do chores and do what he's told. He just does what he wants. He only acts remorseful when he's in trouble.
I give him allowance for doing chores, he says he does something and never touches it. I try to tell him he will pay me if he doesn't do it right or I end up doing it. Still doesn't work. I just don't know what else to do. I can't get through to him.
We have struggled a little from time to time with the kids doing their chores and doing them right. I suffer from depression and when I get down I count on them to do their chores without me having to stay on them on all the time. But does it work? Nope. They take advantage every time and slack off.
Anyways, I’m on the good side again. We have been doing a “pay check” for several months now. They would get paid a certain amount each week for doing their chores. And lose some of it for not. They would get to spend the “play” money at the “family store”. Well, the incentive of earning money hasn’t been working as well as it has been. And the thought of losing it for not doing the chore wasn’t enough. Their behavior was slacking as well. So to fix this we have recently starting using a “duty jar” (a suggestion from a blog I’ve been reading) It started out with auctioning off chores, but has since changed. Now I give the kids certain chores in the evening, brush teeth, put on deodorant, make bed, etc. for the next day. Those chores I won’t pay them for. But then I out the rest of the household chores in the”duty jar” and they draw the chores they will do the next day. There is an amount on the back of each chore that I am willing to pay. (.25, .50, etc) When they turn in the chore they get paid. If they turn it in and it’s not done right I return it. If they don’t get it right the second time, they pay me the amount on the back of the card. Also if I end up doing one of their chores, they pay me. They don’t like it. Also they are getting fined for behavior. Name calling, not cleaning up after themselves, etc, they pay a fee. Maybe this will make a difference. I certainly hope so.
I found this on a blog and totally love it!
Never do for the child, what the child can do for themselves! If we do too much for our children then we are simply telling our children that we do not believe they are capable and they will become entrenched in a life of learned helplessness.
My attempt at making this cake.
Baked and cut in half...
My dad bought the boys a remote control helicopter and plane for Christmas. We tried flying
them in the yard 1 day. We have some trees in the yard but they are more on the edges so we thought it would be ok. Nope. They are some powerful planes. And they're just Air Hogs brand. So after about 20 minutes of lots of crashes and at least half in the trees we decided when the weather got warmed we would just take them to out local park and make a day out of it.
On a homeschooling blog I was reading I saw where a mom was using a "Duty Jar". I really enjoyed her idea and decided to use it in our family. The boys each have their own jars and then theres the main "duty jar". 
Every week I "Auction" off extra chores, such as sweeping the driveway, or cleaning door frames in the house, stuff like that. One of the boys buys the extra chore for 1/3 or 1/2 of the maximum I'm willing to pay for it. Then when the chore is done they get paid the full amount I was willing to pay for them doing the chore. What they buy the chore for depends on how much they actually make on the chore. The boys also came up with an auction between themselves where they sell each other the mandatory chores I assign and pay each other for doing them. The kids seem to think this process is very exciting and are always asking me if I have any chores to auction off. LOL.
The kids jars are also used to pay a duty. If they use ugly words, yell, hit or anything like that they pay a "duty" for the offense to the duty jar. If they don't have the money they can "work off" the amount owed. If they are in debt for more than 2 weeks they have to do everyones chores for free for one day. But theres also an upside. If they have all good marks on chores, lessons, behavior, etc from their star chart for 4 weeks they can claim all the money in the main "duty jar". But that can be a risk cause they aren't allowed to know the amount in the jar. LOL. But it makes it fun.
*And we aren't using real money. We are using the fake money I printed for our "store".
We use a "Star Chart" to keep track of the kids doing their lesson, chores, their behavior, personal hygiene gets done, etc. I have a copy in my binder and t
he kids have a laminated copy in the kitchen where they can see their progress or lack there of. When they complete their chores, lessons, etc they get a "good job" in that spot, but when they don't complete their chores or have undesirable behavior during the day they get a "Not a good job" in that spot.
Then I made tags that say "great job"in green, "please re do" in red and " I need help please" in yellow. Every night I can assign the workbox cards that they need to do for the next day. As they complete them they can turn them in. If they need help they put a "I need help please" tag on their workbox, if I've checked them and they are good I put the "great job" tag on their workbox, if they need to be redone I put the "please redo" tag on the workbox.
We have offically gone with Ellen McHenry's Chemistry for our Science this year. We are throwing in a few Hobby Lobby chemistry kits too.
We just ordered the Chemistry from her a few days ago, so we haven't started yet. But the kids are enjoying some of her free stuff already.
The Periodic Table game has been a wonderful learning experience for them. They are really getting into the periodic table.
This week they will also play the Quick Six card game that is about the Periodic table.
Some time this year we plan on playing the "Element Connections" bingo game, making the Periodic table pillow cases and playing the Organic Molesules card game.
Through a suggestion from someone on my local homeschooling group we tried Learning Language Arts through Literature for my youngest. He is a bit behind on Spelling, Reading and Language Arts in general. He struggled with Reading for a long time. He has known his letters and their sounds since Kindergarten but he always refused to sound out any words. He is now 9 years old and is reading a lot better but still only sight reads. Because of the time it took him read this well he is a bit behind on his Spelling and writing skills. He is doing a great job reading right now and will even finish books, finally. The program Learning Language Arts through Literature has really helped him. He absolutely loves the program! He reads the books that go with it and loves the hands-on activities as well. It is a wonderful program.
We started out using Story of the World for our History. But that has since changed. My boys have hated Story of the World from the begining. I have tried. We used the stories and activity book, but they dreaded History everytime. I even tried the stories on CD. Still didn't work. So, we are now using Homeschool in the Woods history program. It is a very affordable, hands-on and fun History program. Its full of info as well as tons of activities. And it all ends with a lap book. How awesome is that?
We will also start using History pockets for some more fun History projects. And thanks to a wonderful homeschooling mom, Confessions of a Homeschooler, I am hoping to start using her Expedition Earth Goegraphy curriculum real soon.
Its been several months since I've been able to post. I was suffering from some depression. This time has been the longest its ever lasted. I didn't do much during this time. My house got a bit disorganized, kids didn't do much in the way of lessons, and no one did very many chores. I was able to take care of the minimal amount of things luckily. Dishes were done daily, kids were fed, etc. Finally I started taking a mulitvitamin just before Christmas. It really helped. I have been slowly climbing out of my hole. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Woo Hoo.
