Phonics with active kids

Jojo is one of my active kids.  By active, I mean totally ADHD and unable to focus or sit still for more than a minute at the most, constantly getting into stuff, curious about everything, chattering nonstop, playing until she passes out asleep at night kind of active.  I knew that teaching her myself would be a challenge when we decided to keep her home and do OHVA with her instead of sending her to the charter school with her sisters this year.

Now don't get me wrong.  I love teaching her, and I do have a lot of experience with this kind of learner thanks to having Missa first and myself also being this kind of learner.  It keeps life interesting, to say the least.  I never know what she is going to do next in some situations.  She is my child who, at the sweet innocent age of 2, made a beach in my kitchen with flour, salt, and sugar for the sand and then climbed on the counter to use the kitchen sprayer to make the water.  She is the one that I had to call 911 a couple times in one summer because she got into chemicals that I had put in (I thought!) a safe place.  She is my handful, that's for sure.  So I knew I was in for it teaching her myself.

Anyway, she balks at phonics because it has her sitting and working with me quietly.  So what am I supposed to do when the curriculum is the wrong style?  I tweak it, of course!  I tossed aside the letter tiles and workbook for now, and we are using my driveway and sidewalk chalk to practice and learn letter sounds, digraphs, and sight words.  I write them on the driveway, and then I call out a sound or sight word and she jumps on it.  When weather doesn't allow us to do this out in the yard, I have a LOT of printer paper that I can use inside for this.

Yes, sidewalk chalk is a necessary school supply in my home, precisely for the active learners I have.