Frank:....ANY 9 year old kid, or older (specially older), for that matter,....Doing ANYTHING out in the yard to help out now-a-days would be a rarity. They would have to be physically torn away from in front of the MTV, cell phone, or video game and removed from the house.
Around here, one never sees kids in that age bracket outside doing anything. Really sad.
When I was that age, I couldn't wait to get home after school to see what was going on, (Dad was a small contractor) and I'd be out there helping strip forms, dig trenches, mix, pour and finish concrete, lay pipe whatever, and was running a backhoe at 12 years old. Also plowing gardens in the spring w/a David Bradley GT. I only wish he would have known about Cub Cadets when they became available!