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You've heard the phrase "making lemons out of lemonade", right?! Here is a way you can do that with math.

Bills, Bills, and Math

Ed Campos translates the TTM newsletters into Spanish, and this week's is ready at bit.ly/TTMspanish82. Also, be sure to share with friends that many of the Spanish Table Talk Math newsletters are available!

Ugh. Bills. While I don't like seeing them in the mail, oftentimes they come with great data to explore. This week's newsletter has a winner!

In the image above, you get a chance to see my home's energy usage from the power company.

Now, my question to you: after looking at the image, what questions do you have?

This simple question sparks so many conversations and I would love to hear where it takes you and your child(ren). Here are some that I have heard so far:

  • How do you have negative power usage?
  • What happened between June '17 and July '17?
  • Why did you use more power this April than last April?
  • What went wrong in November '17?
  • How many Christmas lights do you put on your house?
  • Were you on vacation all of November '17?
  • How hot was it in September '17?
  • How often do you use your air conditioner and heater?
All of these questions have been fascinating to hear, then explore. If you need a little more context, my family and I live in Southern California and we own a home with solar panels; does that help explain things? On top of that, we started leasing a full-electric vehicle; can you guess which month that began? We like to take a vacation when school gets out; any idea when that is, and for how long?

This histogram, like pretty much any graph, chart, or statistical display, has more to the story than what is being shown. For that reason, it is crucial that we work with our children to help them understand what is happening when information is displayed and how to be curious and critical of what we see.

While my power bill might elicit some interesting questions, yours probably does as well. When your utility bill arrives, show your children a graph/chart/histogram, if there is one, and ask them to ask you questions. You will be amazed, more often than not, at what they come up with!
Have you taken the leap and picked up your copy of Table Talk Math? If so, I would be incredibly honored to have you leave a review on Amazon. It helps others get an idea of what kind of book they're getting and offers an extra insight that I would love to have.

Thank you for bringing math to the table!

--John
Copyright © 2018 Table Talk Math, All rights reserved.


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