Early Money Management

We have had this responsibility chart hanging around our house for a while now. However, I have to honestly admit that most of the time I've gotten so busy that I've forgotten to keep up with it. The kids really do love to refer to it and have that sense of accomplishment when the *stars* are put on though.

So this past month my hubby decided to take on the task. Thank goodness! :) He revamped it a bit and talked to the kiddos about how their allowance would be given them according to how well they kept up with their responsibilities.

Before you think we're total slackers, I promise that this has been the goal all along and we've certainly had similar guidelines before, but the follow-through has been lacking. I hope that doesn't totally disappoint you, but that's just the truth.

After introducing the new *system* in December and following through faithfully by adding their *stars* each day, Vince would sit down with them each Saturday night and go over the chart, talking about how they had done and then give them their allowance accordingly. He would also talk with them about the percentage they should give at church. We are total believers in the biblical tithing principle! I'm so glad that they love to give their offerings at church, many times much more than 10% of their earnings!

As the new system fell into a good rhythm and the kids were growing in their responsibilities, we decided it was time for new banks for them. Their given-to-them-at-birth piggy banks had served them well until now but it was time for something else to help them continue learning.

Vince found these awesome banking *systems* on the Dave Ramsey website~still on special for the holidays, if you're interested! We gave them to the kiddos on January 1st (we didn't want them to get lost in the Christmas shuffle, so we saved them to kick off the New Year).

They've been a huge hit! Each Saturday night Vince sits down with the kiddos and talks about how much they've earned. Then he talks about percentages and they put 10% into the *giving* bank, 20% into the *saving* bank and 70% into the *spending* bank. They love that the banks are a translucent plastic so they can see their money growing:) I hope that these lessons will stay with them for a lifetime.

Do you have an allowance/chore system in place with your children? I'd love to hear about it!

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...

my blessed life

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