DS9 has just recently been allowed to stay home alone during short runs to the store or post office. We also just started (this summer) letting him go with a friend to the convenience store about half a mile up the road, but he has to go on the back streets, not the highway. We're considering letting him walk to school in the fall, which is about 3/4 mile, also by back streets. His friend next door is 8 and his mom was letting him walk to school this spring, so he's keen on it. We live in a tiny rural town.
We are not letting him watch his sister alone yet, probably for at least another year or more. She does get in the way of any common sense that he might otherwise have.
