[Shelley]

I hadn't thought of pulling weeds, they do cut the grass, but a little weed pulling might be in order sometime. Thank you Shelley

[Shelley]

Hey Jill,
thought I'd replied to this, guess I didn't. Yes the meds did help most of the time. He did have an occassional accident. It was DDAVP, comes in liquid, tablet and nasal spray. He used tablets and nasal spray, the spray seemed to work best. Bed wetting can be caused from lots of stuff, one of those things is heredity. I didn't know that until after we had been to the urologist, apparently my dad wet the bed until he was 12-13. Best of luck to you and your family. Shelley

[Howdy]

I've only had 7 yr olds, the chores they've done have been collecting eggs (of course you need to have a hen house for that one), sweeping, mopping with the Swifter mop, dusting, spraying glass cleaner on the mirrors and wiping them with a paper towel, and helping put laundry away (after they made labels for their dresser drawers that listed what goes in each drawer).

One child was very good at moving wheelbarrow loads of snow from place to place, but that wasn't really of any use at all, if he'd stayed longer maybe he'd have switched to horse manure, which would have been very helpful.

One child could cook (with supervision) and serve supper (mac and cheese), and clean the bathroom very well, but after the 'honeymoon' period, she somehow forgot how to do those things! ha!

[AmyAnne]

My 7 year old foster to adopt son is responsible for setting the table, feeding and watering his pet rabbit, keeping his room tidy, and making the bed. He also is supposed to pick up the things that are his that are lying around the house and put them where they belong before bedtime. In addition, I make him help me if he's responsible for the mess (If I've already cleaned the bathroom for the week and he pees on the seat, he has to help clean that up.) I've also made him clean up the bathroom counter because he somehow kept missing the sink when he spat out his mouthwash. after 3 days of cleaning his own bathroom counter, somehow his aim greatly improved

[almost_there]

We just got a 7 year old little boy (all of our kids so far had been under 2, so I was knew at this). I got a big piece of poster board, markers and some stickers and we both sat down together to discuss "Chores". He came up with several that I hadn't even thought of. After our list was done this was what we had...
1) Take Bath/wash hair
2) brush teeth
3) take dishes to sink
4) make bed
5) clean room
6) feed/water cat
7 Do homework
8) get ready for school
9) listen
10) use manners

We wrote these all down and drew squares that were to be filled in with stickers. Then at the bottom we chose privelages (We chose to reward privelages instead of prizes ). He chose swimming, picnic, choosing dinner for a night, etc. Those were to be won when one entire line was filled up. He also got 30 minutes of extra tv/video time if he had 20 stickers, He LOVES putting the stickers on, counting the stickers and looking forward to his privelages.

Now, this was only our first chore board- so next time I plan on altering it and adding a few other ones. I wanted to keep it simple the first time to see if it worked (which it has). This chore board is more daily things to do...sometimes when they are young they need to be reminded to do simple things like listen and brush their teeth...and by having a big board hanging up in their room to remind them it helps a lot, and motivates them. Next time we are going to add some extra chores, ones that don't need to be done every day, but still can earn them stickers. He also wasn't listening the other day...and after going back and forth with him trying to get him to listen we finally decided that we could take away stickers as well for not listening, this wasn't something he wanted to do...so that works as well.

As far as additional- not everyday chores that we will probably add will be

- putting away clothes
- feeding dogs
- rinsing dishes
- helping to put away dishes
- help sort laundry
- help dust

Anyways, not sure if this helps or not, each child is different. This one hadn't actually been held accountable for responsibilities so he happens to love being given them as well as being able to show that he did what he was supposed to do (by looking at the stickers).

Good Luck !