John V, you had 11, you gotta have some pointers on this!
Right now I have teenagers, and I need aimers, not pointers.
What we did, (mostly my wife) was to note carefully the regularity of each child. They did not all potty train at once, but rather one at a time. So keeping a clock on them each is quite easy. This way you know about what time they usually go. That means keeping a regular routine in the house yourself so that the children go by that for themselves. If you can pinpoint the time to the nearest half hour you're doing great, but usually its the nearest 3/4 to 1 hour each way. Put them on the pot during that time, and watch for results. But if you don't get results within, say, an hour and a half, don't push it more than that. That would work against your plan. But make their time on the pot interesting, not drudgery. A puzzle, or a book, or some toys, will keep them occupied for a while. Then they need something new added to the mix.
When they do it, praise them and reward them. I even gave my first one her own potty chair, hand made by me, as her own personal "throne". She thought it the greatest thing; at least for as long as we needed her to.
If they're not ready, they're not ready. But boys are security conscious. They like things the way they are, and don't like change. So you have to be a little more diplomatic with them. No, I didn't say "lie", I said "be diplomatic": there's a difference, you know. You have to re-form their security onto in-between things, and work them over into the things you want them to do.
My one son refused to walk, though he surely had the capabilities and strength. So I manipulated, I mean diplomatized his security onto a set of supports, with which I walked him around the room. He loved it, and looked forward to it each time. One day he noticed that he was the only one holding the supports, not his father. By then his security was in his walking, no longer in his crawling. So he adapted to that rather quickly, and became a very walkative boy.
I used the same stragedy for his potty training later on. (Stragedy is strategy that doesn't work, or even backfires. Kind of like
"confuscation" being purposeful obfuscation. ) In this case, it worked. We used the time approach, and gave him things to do that really interested him. For him is was time with me, and looking at farm machinery books and brochures. So I got a bunch of them. It took his mind off what we really wanted him to do, and made it easier to get results. When we got them, he got to keep his favourite book or brochure as his own. Eventually they were all his. Too bad, I like them too, and I was already trained.
) Then I would tell/ask them to try to go. Most of the time it worked. It's just a matter of being consistant (just like a puppy - every 15 to 20 minutes.) Except with the children you can wait for longer intervals of time (depending on how much they have been drinking.)
Twenty minutes after they had something to drink or eat I'd take them to the bathroom. Every couple of hours I'd sit them on the toilet. Until they got used to being dry. I'd also discipline him when he "chose" not to tell me that he needed to go.
