Help me explain repetition to my impatient kid

[Desert Strawberry]

My 10 year old is convinced that once he has seen a concept, he should never ever have to interact with it again. 

 

His grammar, and now his math have more repetition -not really repetition, but the same exercises with increasing difficulty- than he would like. He's so easily frustrated ( in general) by this. "I've already done this." "I have to do this again?" "This is the same thing." Whine whine whine. 

 

I have tried and tried to explain that he has to practice his skills, memory works through repetition, he's building on his skills, blah blah blah. We had a Long Talk about this again last week. I think he understands, but I'm bracing myself for more pouting and resistance. 

 

Does anyone have magic words I can tell him to make this seem less like unnecessary busy work to him?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I fed you yesterday.

You played that game once already.

[duckens]

There are no shortcuts.

 

The secret to doing things well is to practice, practice, practice.  There are no shortcuts.  Most things, if you want to do them well, you need to practice.

 

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I also use these opportunities:

 

Whenever dd6 is happy that she can do something new (ride a bike, do something new in Gymnastics, achieve competence in a swim level, and her drawing has come a long way this spring!), I ask, "Why do you think you can do it now, when you couldn't do it before?"

 

If dd6 does not know the answer, then I prompt her, "Could it be that you PRACTICED?  Most things, if you want to do them well, you just need to practice."  She is starting to figure this out. 

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Is it possible that he does not need so much repetition to learn certain skills?  Some kids need 20 problems to learn a concept.  Some only need 5.

 

Disclaimer: Other families have done this, but we have not.

 

Would it work for your family to offer your son to do only the odd exercises, and if he gets them all right, he doesn't need to do the even ones.

 

BUT

 

1) He must do them independently.

2) He must not grumble or complain about doing the half assigned.

3) If he misses an odd one, he must do ALL the even ones, too, because he obviously needs more PRACTICE.  *tee hee!*

You could also assign two even problems for each odd one missed (plus fixing the odd one).

4) If he has difficulties with this concept in the future, he must come back and do the remaining even problems with NO COMPLAINING.

 

If this concept doesn't stick in his brain, you could always come back and do the even ones.

 

Be careful before instituting this practice.  Tell your son you will TRY it for a week, then two weeks, etc.  At whatever point this system quits working for him as a learning process, it's back to Mom being a meanie!  GO MEAN MOMS!!!!

[Bang!Zoom!]

Er uhm...we are discussing philosophical reasoning behind repetition on the Art of Teaching thread.

[Rosyl]

Repetition is the mother of retention.

It is a refrain I say daily (tried to insert smiley)

[carriede]

Does he play or enjoy watching sports? Remind him that players don't just play at the big game, but that they practice OFTEN.

[Ellie]

1) He must do them independently.

2) He must not grumble or complain about doing the half assigned.

3) If he misses an odd one, he must do ALL the even ones, too, because he obviously needs more PRACTICE.  *tee hee!*

You could also assign two even problems for each odd one missed (plus fixing the odd one).

4) If he has difficulties with this concept in the future, he must come back and do the remaining even problems with NO COMPLAINING.

 

If this concept doesn't stick in his brain, you could always come back and do the even ones.

 

Be careful before instituting this practice.  Tell your son you will TRY it for a week, then two weeks, etc.  At whatever point this system quits working for him as a learning process, it's back to Mom being a meanie!  GO MEAN MOMS!!!!

 

:iagree: :iagree: :iagree:

[PeterPan]

*Engagement* with appropriate amounts of repetition results in retention.  If the kid REMEMBERS it from last time and can do the first 3 (or the hardest of the set) easily, move on, mercy.  

 

Btw, that chaste bit of advice about moving on and not doing more than what the particular dc needs came straight from the mouth of SWB.  :D

[regentrude]

Does he need the repetition?

The amount of practice needed for mastery varies greatly from child to child. I would make sure to tailor the amount of repetition to his need, not base it on "what the curriculum says". My kids have attended public school, and the amount of repetition drove them crazy  because they did not need it for mastery.

 

Give him the math problems or grammar exercises; if he has mastered the concept and gets them right, move on to the next topic - irrespective of whether the "curriculum" thinks he needs more. Some kids understand a grammar rule after one explanation, others need to underline nouns for several pages before they get the idea what a noun is. The kid who understands it from the first explanation does not benefit from doing several pages.

 

He will come to value repetition if he needs it. If he gets everything immediately, which is entirely possible, he is not adequately challenged and you need to move on.

He will come to resent school if he is doing unnecessary busywork.

[mathnerd]

LOL ... I love this!

 

I fed you yesterday.
You played that game once already.

 

I stress that "Mastery" is impossible to achieve in any field without repetition. I use real life examples of some of my child's heroes to stress the point:

Michael Jordan - he apparently practiced 100 free throws from each angle every day (or some such thing) - we all know how well his career turned out to be and what a basketball great he is..

Mozart - even little Mozart was practicing a lot under his dad's supervision at a really early age - we all know what a great musician he turned out to be ...

etc etc.

My DS is easily bored by repetition and whines all the time about it. 

[Desert Strawberry]

All good points.

He is a quick learner, so we rarely do extra practice. These exercises he's been complaining about are a series of 8 problems. He has to get them all correct. 8 is not a lot!

I can trim down the grammar. Today I did not have him recite definitions over and over. We watched some Schoolhouse Rock clips instead. Even then, he informed me that we had watched one clip last year. I don't think it's unreasonable to watch a 2 minute video once a year.

[boscopup]

Today I did not have him recite definitions over and over. We watched some Schoolhouse Rock clips instead. Even then, he informed me that we had watched one clip last year. I don't think it's unreasonable to watch a 2 minute video once a year.

 

If he doesn't want to watch the 2 minute clip, have him "teach" you the material learned in the clip. IF he can do that (and it will probably still take 2 minutes AND give him the repetition his brain might need to keep it fresh ;) ), then he doesn't have to watch the clip. If he can't teach you, he needs to watch it and then try again, because obviously he needs a refresher if he can't teach it to you.

 

8 problems doesn't sound like much. Is he placed correctly in the program? Is the program sufficiently difficult for him?

[Desert Strawberry]

The clip was for all of the kids -review for him, preview for the others. He just wants me to know there's nothing new under the sun for him, I think.

He's reviewing multiplication on Khan academy. I think he's placed properly, but he's only on the first or second lesson, so we'll see. We're switching from Singapore to lof.