My two kids (9 and 12) are inspired by fiction much more than real life, as I was when I was a kid! When i used to have to do housework and was not feeling it, I would read the Little House books, and when I did my chores I felt very proud of my work. This worked for me all the way up to adulthood, just about until I realised how troubling parts of the books are! But as a behavioural strategy it was fantastic – I was basically role playing through unpleasant stuff, until I had the mental muscles to do it without the story.
These are non-trivial books to read to children – I am Australian, so I would have to educate myself much more about US history to give them a critical viewpoint on for eg First Nations people, genocide, etc. I am thinking I will do this, actually. But what I wanted were some recommendations for books which can give kids who are both ADHD and fairly demand avoidant a feeling of curiosity about taking on responsibilities by choice, and feeling proud of your work, specifaclly house work (it is not difficult to get them to hammer a nail, but washing a dish is another story).
I think they partially lack perspective, so perhaps historical fiction? but fantasy is good too, maybe even better. My eldest is dyslexic so I will be reading aloud to them. Theyre both boys, which is only slightly relevant. They like books about girls too, but not about, like, boyfriends.
by bessmarvin88