How to rack my kid's money?

[Jim Leek]

I have not been very good about paying my children's allowances.  This is partially because I rarely carry cash, and then they lose the cash anyway.

Since I use Gnucash to track my finances, I thought it would be a good idea to make accounts for my kids.  Every week I could transfer $X into their account, and when they spend money, I can use my credit card to pay for it, and then just assign that purchase to their money in Gnucash.  At least, that's the theory.  The thing is, I'm not sure how to implement it.  

I want to track how much money they have, but I don't actually transfer that money anywhere in real life.  My bank account has the same real balance as it did before I paid their allowance, it's just that some of that money is now theirs, so I don't want to actually make a transfer.  
This sounds kind of like a budget?  Or maybe a liability?  

Any ideas?
Thanks,
JIm