Remember the part of the book Tom Sawyer where Tom gets his friends to white wash the fence for him.  Well that really does work but the child has to be younger by a couple of  years and that child has to feel like they are getting something out of it; such as being able to play with the older child.  A few weeks ago our little neighbor girl wanted to play with Lona but she had to pick up the backyard, pooper scoop and mow. ( Her brothers ref and she wants a job.  I have a job that needs doing.  As soon as she can referee then I'm out of a yard worker.)  Anyhow, she decided that it would be in her best interest to help my daughter pooper scoop so they could have time to play.  Fast forward a couple of weeks and John decided it was time to stain the back fence (we have four different colors of stain back there) and "hired" Job and Lona to do it.  Here comes our little neighbor girl.  "Knock Knock Knock" on the front door.  "Can Lona come out a play?"  "No." I replied, "She's staining the fence in the backyard."  5 minutes later she's in the backyard watching and talking about how she could help out and she just needed a roller.  I'm sure my kids would have been more than willing to hand their roller over to her.