Weekly Follow up 2/14/11-2/18/11

We kinda took the last week off. We had to take my dad to the VA for some tests and thats a day long adventure. My dad lives 45 minutes South of us. Then when he gets here we have to drive 1 1/2 hours north to the VA. Instead of taking off one day and messing up a routine we took the week. Which the kids love and I don't have to check lessons for a week. We all win.
With my boys I can't just say you have the week off. If I do they sit around and ask me 100 times what they can do.
So, we have a fun week. They played all their games this week. They played The Periodic Table game, scrabble, boggle, yahtzee, cards, chess, their DS games, computer games, ps 2 time, wii time and even some outside time. They love those kinds of weeks.

Living outside the world of time

I know it’s been several days since I’ve posted anything. Last week my hubby took vacation all week. We decided to totally relax in our own way. The kids got the week off from lessons. And we decided not to live in the world of time. We went to bed when we were tired, got up when we wanted, ate when we were hungry, didn’t pay any attention to the clock and basically had no schedule at all! It was so awesome and relaxing. We ended up doing a lot of work around the house, but we totally enjoyed every bit of it. We rearranged every room in the house except the bathrooms. Hubby even retiled the bathroom floor. We even took the kids for ice cream twice, out to lunch once and dinner once. We watched a movie almost every evening and still had time to do tons of other things. We even took 1 day and drove 3 hours one way to visit my husband’s grandma and aunt. One the way back we stopped by my dad’s and visited him. It was the most relaxing time we’ve had in long time. Even though we we’re totally busy the whole time. The last 2 days we started to feel that it was going to come to an end soon. The feeling that we would have to get back on schedule was sinking in and we didn’t like it. Lol. It was the best vacation we’ve had!!! I totally LOVE my family and LOVE spending every minute with them!

Blessed Dragons Store

We have always had a reward system in our house for a while where they earn things like sleep overs, ice cream, DVD's, sodas, etc. ( They don't get candy and soda on a regular basis so this kind of stuff is a treat)(Our boys are 8 & 12). They get rewarded for completing their lessons daily, without giving us grief, completing chores, behavior, going to bed on time with out hassle, etc. This has worked well. For the most part.
We decided to take your store idea and add to it. (age appropriateness and such) We created our own family store complete with Store bucks. We use real change for the change part but the "store bucks" for the rest. My husband thought it would be cute to teach them about paychecks too. So, we created little paychecks with stubs. They get paid 1 Store buck per day for completing their chores. And an additional store buck for getting all stars for their lessons, chores, behavior, etc, per day. At the end of the week they get a pay check. (oldest gets taxed, just a little) They have to take it to the "bank" to get it cashed. They sign the back and get store bucks. Then visit the store where there are various items like sodas, cd's, dvd's, ps 2 games, toys, small candies, suckers, ice cream, sleep over coupons, Stay up late coupons, etc. They choose what they want to have to figure out the change. Then they "Check out". If they have any store bucks or change left it gets deposited in the "bank". They can make purchases every evening if they have money.If they don't then they have to wait for "pay day". They can earn extra store bucks for yard work, and books they've read.
My husband also wants to start letting them take out loans. No more than their previous check amount (with interest). He's hoping this will teach them about responsibily, contracts, giving your word on something and how important it is, and stuff like that.
All of this is of course on their level.
We tried it out this afternoon. The kids thought it was soooo cool! They absolutely loved it. I haven't seen them that excited in a while. lOl. It was awesome!

I designed and printed out store bucks on green construction paper.

Then we laminated them. (I love my laminating machine!

Heres what they look like.

I wish it was that easy sometimes. LOL

Here's the checks. I tried to make them similar to checks but still fun for the boys.

Here's John at the bank cashing his "check".

John still cashing his check.

Eric is checking out the store. Trying yo decide on what to purchase. LOL

John is "checking out" with his purchases. Dad was banker, and teller this time.

We all had a blast!