DD 7 making lots of simple mistakes

[Anonymous]

2nd grade DD has suddenly started making lots of mistakes in classwork and homework. It's simple things she clearly knows. For example in a math problem, she'll rewrite the number incorrectly in doing the next step. She isn't struggling with content or explaining/understanding the work.

This is happening in school and at home. It wasn't the case at all just few weeks ago. Most classwork and assessments that came home looked great. I know there are distractions everywhere but I've tried to explain that it's important to be careful and that's how th teacher will know she understood, and to double check her work.

Any tips for what to try/change or how to talk to her better about this?

[Anonymous]

Practice at home. Sit next to her, and remind her to check her work. Rinse and repeat as many times as it takes. It may take a few sessions, or it may take weeks or months. Eventually, checking her work will become a habit.

[Anonymous]

Has she had her eyes checked recently?

[Anonymous]

She is only 7

[Anonymous]

Has she had any headaches or complained of anything else lately? It could be her eyes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has she had her eyes checked recently?

Good point - turning 8 soon and we will have the annual ped appt and I'll mention it. Last year's vision screen was fine.

[Anonymous]

One of my kids was like this—they are in a hurry. I used to tell my son to check his work and then ask him if he was willing to bet his tv/screen time on his work. He would grab the math sheet back and check again. Kids also need to find a way to check their work. For example, cover up your math work with a blank sheet of paper and repeat the problem and the answers should be the same. Checking work is a skill set for children as well as adults.

[Anonymous]

What do they get when they finish early in class? For my kid it was Chromebook free time "educational" games. So she was rushing through her work.

[Anonymous]

We had our son re-do work at home when we found mistakes in it. We explained that it was important that he understand how to complete his work correctly so that we knew he understood the concepts. That meant re-doing work with mistakes at home. The mistakes at school greatly decreased because he didn't want to do it at home. When he made a mistake it was because he didn't understand something and needed it reviewed to learn the concept, not that he was rushing work.

We did out best to not treat it like a punishment and to focus on his understanding the work he was assigned. We have had to do this a few times in MS, mainly when we see multiple grades in the grade book that were below what we thought he was capable of. We asked him to show us the work so we could understand what he wasn't connecting and we walked through that work with him. After a week or so of reviewing the work and helping him understand how to make the connections he was missing, we didn't have to do it any more.

[Anonymous]

It improves with age. Just keep working at it, but it will get better over the grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do they get when they finish early in class? For my kid it was Chromebook free time "educational" games. So she was rushing through her work.

Yes, that's the case for us too. Is definitely part of it. At home it's obviously not the same immediate "reward" for speed but I do think she likes to just get it done as fast as possible so she can get back to playing and other stuff.

I've thought about instead saying "X is homework time" and setting a timer so there isn't the incentive to be done "early" but then she zones out and doesn't get much done in the allotted time.

[Anonymous]

Make sure she's getting enough sleep. The last month has been a mess with all the school closings and now the olympics, etc., I know my kids have been going to bed a lot later than they should and it's definitely impacting my 9 year old. We will hopefully be back on track this week.

[Anonymous]

Nothing like a good beating to fix this behavior. My kid was like this when they were 6 and it fixed the issue immediately and they only got As from then on.

[Anonymous]

It’s a revolving door when you need her less she wants you more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2nd grade DD has suddenly started making lots of mistakes in classwork and homework. It's simple things she clearly knows. For example in a math problem, she'll rewrite the number incorrectly in doing the next step. She isn't struggling with content or explaining/understanding the work.

This is happening in school and at home. It wasn't the case at all just few weeks ago. Most classwork and assessments that came home looked great. I know there are distractions everywhere but I've tried to explain that it's important to be careful and that's how th teacher will know she understood, and to double check her work.

Any tips for what to try/change or how to talk to her better about this?

I think you’re on the right track, I just have a few suggestions you might find helpful.

The best way to check your work is to start with the answer and do the inverse. For example, if the problem was 10+2=12, check by making sure that 12-2=10. If you merely review the initial operation, there’s a natural tendency to automatically repeat any errors, but reversing the operation forces your brain to reset and actually think through the problem.

When my daughter went through this, she initially went too far the other way and was so careful about checking each problem that she wasn’t finishing tests. We had to talk to her about time management, completing the questions and then going back if there was time to check them, and keeping an eye on the time and pacing herself so she didn’t rush, but also didn’t get bogged down.

For written homework (which probably doesn’t really apply in 2nd grade), it can be helpful to set a paper aside for a while before checking so that your brain can reset a little and not automatically make the same mistakes. Another technique is to read the work aloud, because hearing it may catch a mistake that your eyes would otherwise just pass over.