Teaching a child with a short attention span

I thought that I would discuss my dilemmas of raising a child who is very hyper and has a short attention span. Let me start off by sharing how old my son is. He is now eight years old and is a student in public elementary school here in North Carolina. I basically started home schooling my son at the age of one and a half until he turned six. He did not get to start school when he was supposed to at five, because it was too late to register him. He started school at six due to this fact. My son has always been very hyper, so I try to help him by letting him play a lot, and do physical activities.

I began to notice that he would be really interested in the stories that I read to him for a few minutes and then he would just get up in the middle of the story and start playing with his toys. I would have to call him back to sit next to me so he could finish listening to the story. He would do this again for a few minutes and then he would begin to wander off again. I realized that this could be a problem when he would start school. I would always explain to him that sometimes you will have to sit still for a little bit, but that he would get to get up and play eventually.

My son also has bouts with temper tantrums at times when he does not get his own way. He wants to do his own thing and at times does not want to listen to authority figures such as myself. What seems to work best during these times is when my mother or I read stories from the Bible to him, and then we explain to him that God says that children must honor thy mother and thy father. I believe that this confirms things for him and he will listen and calm down.

He started taking piano lessons about a month and a half ago, and I will have to say that I have seen a great turn around in behavior from him. It is my wish for him to join a little league team over the summer and to start him with learning to swim, and martial arts. There is a lot of discipline that is taught during these sessions. It is not only about learning how to defend yourself. I believe that these things will also aid in changing his behavior drastically. If there are any other parents out there that have experienced these types of symptoms in their child I would very much appreciate it a decent comment about this matter.