That sounds like our house. I have a 9 year old, a 7 year old and my wife is pregnant not. Right now our 9 year old son is very fond of "I forgot" and it's usually about chores or homework. To counter this we made a "chore chart[" where my son and daughter have all of our chores listed. They get to "earn" their $5 a week allowance by doing their chores. If they don't do their chores then they don't get whatever amount we have assigned to that chore. For example, our daughter has to load the dishwasher. This chore is worth twenty five cents and if she doesn't do it that day, she doesn't get the twenty five cents. That is deducted from her allowance so that she would only get $4.75. Their homework is also listed as a chore as is brushing their teeth and so on. So they earn their salary just as we do. Their teachers have their assignments listed on the school web site, but my sister, who uses the same system, has to ask their teacher every day when she picks them up from school. They all know they will be monitored and I think this is teaching them the basics of having a job to do and earning their money. We have gone even further and started a bank account (Mom's piggy bank) for them. They have to deposit a certain amount of their salary into it and we made up "bank book" where it is recorded. It's worked pretty well so far.