My child has forgotten everything

[bookbard]

Specifically, my 12 yr old has forgotten all maths she has ever learned today. I wouldn't be surprised if she couldn't add one and one. Even though we have been doing maths consistently every day, today it has all gone and apparently she has never learned this whole adding fractions business let alone basic algebra. Stuff I think we covered 2 years ago. And I am pretty sure we have gone over it since then. 

She's going to school next year. Hopefully it comes back to her before then. 

[Shoeless]

One time, my child insisted he had no idea what a printed, lower case "a" looked like. He made this statement while looking at a page of text. Nope, not a single "a" on the page he could look to as an example. 

Hang in there ❤️ 

[domestic_engineer]

Yup.  We’ve been there, done that. 

I have no words of advice; I’m just posting in solidarity with you.

[HomeAgain]

Yep.  Welcome to toddlerhood all over again, where one skill is learned and 50 sit collecting dust as their bodies put energy into growing.

 

We had a lot of arguments this year over what he was taught, and he was in school.  My emails back to his teachers were along the lines of "yeah, my kid is being an idiot right now.  My apologies."

[Nm.]

My son is 12 and he recently told me he has had trouble reading as fast as he used to.  He was a speed reader.  I still think he’s pretty fast but to him he’s slowed down.  Must be hormones.

[EKS]

We used to get that here.  A lot.  It was so frustrating and I never understood it.

Now I do.  I am getting a second bachelor's degree in math.  I forget things all the time.  It is stunning just how much I don't remember (and I am a very good student, 4.0, asked to be an undergraduate TA, trying as much as possible to understand concepts and not just memorizing procedures, so not just skating by).  When I'm reminded of whatever it is, it comes back, but if it's been a while, it doesn't come back with all of its nuance.  Because of this experience, I have a whole lot more empathy for kids who forget how to deal with fraction arithmetic.

The great thing about homeschooling is that you can remind them of whatever it is and move on (as opposed to school where they just move on).

[HomeAgain]

Also, this summer I had to remind my kid that it's not about remembering the procedure, it's about puzzling his way through it.  The procedure will come back to him.

I bought a Singapore Challenging Word Problems book for him to work through.  The first chapter had some rough days, but knee deep in the second and he's doing fine because he's approaching math more like a detective again.

[cintinative]

This may not be your issue, but preteen brain fog is a thing.  Seriously there was a year there with my oldest where I was seriously beside myself with all the silly mistakes and blank stares. It passed. I hope yours does too!

[8filltheheart]

12 minutes ago, cintinative said:

This may not be your issue, but preteen brain fog is a thing.  Seriously there was a year there with my oldest where I was seriously beside myself with all the silly mistakes and blank stares. It passed. I hope yours does too!

I never experienced this with any of my kids until my youngest last yr.  The transition from 12-13 was brutal for her.  She grew something like 7 inches on top of serious hormonal swings.  She was tired all of the time (I think from growing so much.)  She is still growing (she is about to be taller than all of her sisters as a young 13 yo) but at least ist isn't impacting her like it did during last school yr.  There are still days when she is really exhausted for no apparent reason, but by far she is much more back to her old self. 

I had to switch math for her last yr.  She was supposed to be doing geometry but she was just so emotional and tired all of the time that we back tracked and did another yr of simple alg so that she could just function.  (I'm incredibly thankful that my other 7 weren't like that.  It was rough!)

[KrissiK]

My home educated daughter went to brick and mortar high school and told everyone that Italy was in France. I don’t know how many maps we went over, how many times we said, “Italy is the boot”. Everyone laughed at her. I felt  like a total homeschool fail.

[ScoutTN]

2 hours ago, cintinative said:

This may not be your issue, but preteen brain fog is a thing.  Seriously there was a year there with my oldest where I was seriously beside myself with all the silly mistakes and blank stares. It passed. I hope yours does too!

This!!!

[73349]

6 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

Also, this summer I had to remind my kid that it's not about remembering the procedure, it's about puzzling his way through it.  The procedure will come back to him.

So true. My reminder is, "You're not supposed to already know the answer; you're supposed to figure it out."

[GoldenState]

My kids are almost 7 and 10, so I can’t speak to the teenage phase but we just recently began DHA supplementation again (Omega-3’s). Teenagers often don’t eat well so I’m wondering whether some nutritional deficiencies could make learning harder, along with all the hormonal changes etc. 

[Ellie]

I feel her pain. I"m pretty sure I've forgotten a number of basic things which I knew lat week.

(((bookbard and dc)))

I have no doubt that if your dc goes to school, all the "forgotten" files in her brain will be there when she needs to know them.

[HomeAgain]

9 minutes ago, GoldenState said:

My kids are almost 7 and 10, so I can’t speak to the teenage phase but we just recently began DHA supplementation again (Omega-3’s). Teenagers often don’t eat well so I’m wondering whether some nutritional deficiencies could make learning harder, along with all the hormonal changes etc. 

Anecdotal evidence, but in our house it is not the case.

DS13 is an athlete and eats quite a bit, but also has most of his meals tailored for nutrition. His meals are rich in dark greens, variety of other vegetables/fruits, lean meat, plant based protein, healthy fats, and the few whole grains he will eat.  He drinks only water most of the week.  Fast food is a rarity.  I did give up trying to pack enough for him for school lunch so he would eat what was packed and then eat the hot lunch, usually pizza. He is still dumb as a box of rocks sometimes.  It does correlate to his growth spurts, but he was growing nearly all of last year.  It's only been in the past week or two that he has slowed down his growth enough to juggle multiple things at once and the difference is night and day.  I have the kid back who, at 10, was a self-starter and could wake up in the morning, do his chores, come up with a plan and work on various things with me to bounce ideas off of.  Last month I had the kid who couldn't believe he had to make his bed AGAIN because he already did it yesterday and couldn't focus on a math problem long enough to think about what it was really asking, not what he thought it was asking.

[AmandaVT]

I work in a middle school and can confidently say that kids' brains kind of fall out in 7th grade and they start to come back midway through 8th. 

[GoldenState]

I appreciate the info since this is something I will likely run into fairly soon then. 

[vonfirmath]

16 hours ago, AmandaVT said:

I work in a middle school and can confidently say that kids' brains kind of fall out in 7th grade and they start to come back midway through 8th. 

My understanding is that this is one reason math is usually just review in middle school (which I can remember being bored to distraction by until I was FINALLY allowed to take algebra 1 in 8th grade).  Because maintaining what they know in math through this giant growth time is considered fantastic.

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by vonfirmath

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Edited September 9, 2023 by Petrova Fossil

[BusyMom5]

One year one of my kids had me convinced she forgot all her math facts.   Took me 3 weeks to figure out she just didn't want to do harder, multi-step problems.   

I've raised 2 and on my 3rd 12 year old girl.  It's hormones.   It makes middle school so hard!  It may be true that she can't do math some days.  I've had girls in tears over math!  I had one that I let skip on certain hormonal days.  I told her it was okay to take a mental health break while she learns to live as a woman.  This will pass! (At least I keep telling myself this- it's hard!  I've had a frustrating day with mine).

[eve0806]

Usually this happens, especially in children of this age, because they are very active and confused during this period, they need a lot of vitamins and healthy nutrition (I took from Canadian Pharmacy,) they need to remember everything and concentrate to many things, try to give a complex of vitamins and eat more nuts and berries..it should help

Edited July 31, 2023 by eve0806

[Servant4Christ]

We are in the middle of this with 12 yr old DS. DH recently had DS counting money and seriously looked at me like I must've dropped the ball educationally because DS couldn't count money! I was absolutely horrified. I promise I've been teaching and the test scores prove he's learning, but man oh man, I sure do question myself and the curriculum we are using at times like this.

[ktgrok]

On 6/25/2023 at 9:17 PM, AmandaVT said:

I work in a middle school and can confidently say that kids' brains kind of fall out in 7th grade and they start to come back midway through 8th. 

This gives me hope! My 13 yr old is SO foggy lately! The other day I had to repeat a question to her 5 times in a row and I’m still not sure she knew what I said. Math has been UGLY. 

[Terabith]

Maria Montessori says that this is why we should do intense academics in elementary school and the middle school years should be devoted to socialization, physical activity, and developing independence and life skill (when will I use this in real life).  Those are the things kids are wired for in early adolescence.  She recommends kids working on a farm and starting and running their own businesses during middle school.