The Four Stages of Acquisition (and Why Your Child Keeps Forgetting Everything)

“AGAIN?!”

If I had a dollar for every time a child looked at one of my worksheets and said that... well, let’s just say I’d have a lot of dollars and probably a villa in Sentosa by now.

At 5imple, repetition isn’t just part of the plan—it is the plan. And yes, it’s boring. Yes, it feels like we’re going in circles. But I promise you, it’s exactly how real learning happens.

Ever learned to drive? Remember how awkward it felt the first time you had to check your blind spot, brake gently, and not mount a curb—all at once? Then one day, boom. You’re on autopilot. That’s the goal for our kids: practice, repetition, mastery.

Enter: The Four Stages of Acquisition.

(Basically, the science-y way of saying, “Yes, your child will forget things. It’s normal. Breathe.”) So... What Are the Four Stages of Acquisition?

The Four Stages of Acquisition describe how we learn (and remember!) new skills over time. It’s a cycle every child goes through—whether they’re learning to add, subtract, or tie their shoelaces.

Here’s the quick breakdown:

1️⃣ Acquisition – The “I’m just learning this” stage. It’s new, awkward, and slow. Mistakes everywhere. Totally normal.

2️⃣ Fluency – Now they can do it easily and quickly. Confidence builds. You feel like a proud parent. Life is good.

3️⃣ Generalization – Taking what they’ve learned and applying it in different ways. (Example: Using addition facts while solving word problems.)

4️⃣ Maintenance – Keeping the skill fresh over time. This is why we review old topics. If we don’t revisit it, it fades away.

Why does this matter? Because kids forget things. They need repetition to keep skills alive. And that’s exactly why 5imple is built around inbuilt review—so your child doesn’t just learn something once. They keep it forever.

Take Emma, my very own case study.

We started her addition journey 18 months ago. +1, +2, +3… all the way to +10. By the time she wrapped it up, she was on fire. Confident. Fast. I could barely snap my fingers before she had the answer.I thought, “Wow, look at me, what a fantastic teacher I am.”

Then subtraction came along and... let’s just say the wheels came off. Teaching Emma subtraction was... humbling. I reworked my worksheets. I questioned my career. I questioned my life. I questioned whether I should just start selling fishballs at the market. (Another story for another day.)

But we got through it. She became a subtraction queen. And I thought, “Okay, we’re back on track!”

Until...

At a random family gathering, some well-meaning uncle asked Emma, “What’s 8 + 4?”She looked him dead in the eye and said, “4.”

I won’t lie. My soul briefly left my body.Me. A professional. A literal expert in teaching kids math. And my own child, confidently getting 8 + 4 wrong.

But here's what experience (and science) has taught me:This is normal.

Kids can only hold so much in their working memory. When they’re deep in mastering one skill (like subtraction), other skills (like addition) get pushed to the back of the filing cabinet. It's still there. It's just... hiding.

This is the second stage of acquisition.

The “I swear we did this already, why can’t you remember?!” stage.

It’s unsettling, I know. But trust me. It’s coming back.

Fast forward a couple of months. Subtraction? Locked and loaded. Time to level up—addition up to 100.

And of course... she forgot everything. The first three lessons were painful. She stared at the worksheets like she’d never seen numbers before.

But here’s the thing: This part? The struggle?The frustration?

This is active recall. This is the hard work of moving knowledge from “I sort of knew that once” to “I’ll never forget this again.”

At 5imple, that’s our job. To build that foundation so solid that, even if your child forgets for a bit, we can bring it back. We work through the ugly part together in class, so when it’s time for you to work with them at home, they’re ready. Emma got there. She now smashes her addition up to 100 like a pro.

And that’s the whole point.

It’s never easy.It’s rarely pretty. But repetition, active recall, and going through the same old thing over and over? That’s how kids learn. That’s how they build confidence.

And yes, one day, they’ll probably give it all back to us like we gave it back to our own teachers. But with enough cycles, enough practice, and enough patience (and maybe just a few imaginary iPad-throwing moments), it sticks.

Trust the process. Count the wins. And if your child says, “Again?!”You can smile and say,“ Yes. Again. That’s how we make it yours forever.”