Chore charts

well much to their dismay, chore charts and 30 min cards started back up today with a little twist. i tweaked some of the chores, but also, instead of saving cards for webkinz, each card is worth 50cents. sooo they can either use them for tv, video games etc... or on saturdays they can turn them into money. now since we rarely have cash on hand, i decided to use it to our advantage. i took two check registers and have one for each of them. they have a starting balance of $5 in their checking and $1 in their savings. on saturdays they decide what they are turning into money. 10% goes for their tithe (which they will be given hard cash for, and 10% gets moved into their savings (also kept track of in register). registers will be kept in my purse, so if we are out and about and they want something, they can see if they have enough money in their "account" and if they do, then i will buy it for them and it gets deducted from their account. also if they use up all their cards and need to give one to us for discipline reasons but have none, it comes out of their account (again 50 cents per card)
now in order to encourage GOOD behavior, i have made us all the electricity police. if we catch one of them leaving a light on or tv, radio etc... (not including fans) they give us a 30 min card, however if they catch us doing the same, we give them one. they just are not allowed to police each other.
also, to encourage physical activity, they can earn a card for 30 mins of activity. such as if they go swimming for 30 min or more, they get a card, if they go walking etc... but i set a limit of 1 card per activity per day. and made inside and outside activities, such as the wii fit or my stationary bike (they can reach now) so if it's raining they can still earn them .
my hope is, like last year to get ourselves in a routine and practice self dicipline.
i also have "specials" that if they work will carry over into the school year. we have a different focus for each day. however they know some days things may come up where these things aren't possible, but on good days this is what we will be focusing on, monday is library and bowling, tues is learning day, i want to work on teaching them things like cooking, sewing, laundry etc... wed is setting goals, checking on our goals and organizing, thursday special craft project, friday journaling our week, saturday payday/banking, sunday family game day.
sooo this is my way of practicing for the school year yet making it somewhat fun for the kids. plus teaching and training them for life. i'm sure some days will work better than others, but we have a plan. now if we can just stick to it.