Nothing says love like cold hard cash

Do you have a hard time motivating your children to do what you want them to do?  I do.  What do you bribe them with?  When they were little it was candy or small things.  These days my kids want cash.  Well I guess that's not true.  They want toys that cost money or cash. :)  Whichever works to their advantage. 

Jack is 10 and in 5th grade this year.  He was supposed to learn his multiplication tables last year.  Last year was a very rough year.  This year he has an amazing teacher and I'm very hopeful.  The only problem is that he still doesn't know those times tables like he should.  I've tried playing all sorts of games and just doing flash cards with him, that is when I can convince him he has to do it.  So last night I had a little thought.  Hmmm.  Grammy paid Jack $13 for memorizing the 13 articles of faith from church.  What if I pay him a dollar of each times tables set he has memorized,he's supposed to have to 12.  He really loved it when Grammy did it so he should be just as excited right? 

I presented him the idea this morning and he said it sounded good.  I told him he could have money or a toy.  He said he'd rather have Lego's.  I think he's afraid he won't get much for his work if he takes the cash.  I'm hoping he'll be motivated to do this. 

Now we've tried paying him for things in the past.  I want my kids to learn piano but Mike doesn't want to pay anyone to teach them. We worked out a deal last year with Jack when he wanted to earn money.  He could take piano lesson from Mike.  The deal was $1.00 per lesson, one lesson per week.  $.25 per 15 min. practice.  That's $9 a month if he practices for 5 days a week.  I thought it was a great way to earn some money and easy too.  Hasn't worked out so well.  David on the other hand has now started and is going to surpass Jack any minute, I think he already has. 

So my question to anyone who actually still checks my blog is, what do you do to motivate your kids?  Is it right to pay them for things you already expect them to do?  Now that I will be paying Jack for memorizing his times tables I'll have to do the same for David and Sam when they probably would have done it just because that's what they are supposed to do.  Tips?  Anyone?