Family Challenge

I would like you to join me in “Table Talk Math.” The idea came to me through the book written by John Stevens. Math is everywhere around us, it is part of our daily lives, but it is rarely talked about and even worse it is often feared. To try to turn this around I would like you to start talking about math through our monthly Family Challenges.

Here’s how it will work. I will send you a monthly email outlining a new challenge for your family. I would like for you to read through the challenge and start to ponder the concept. I encourage you to think on it for a day or two. Try to incorporate what you see at work, on your way home from work or during lunch to engage your student in the conversation. Consider how you will approach the conversation.

Following your conversation please share it out. You could comment on my Family Challenge page on WordPress or send me a Tweet @aharrellmath. If you don’t use social media please feel free to simply email me, aharrell@hbuhsd.edu.

The goal is for this to be a conversation. We don’t want one question that is answered right or wrong and never revisited. We don’t want one word answers. Please refer to the table below for added guidance of what we are trying for with these Family Challenges.

Encourage

  • Disagreement
  • Doing research
  • Having more than one solution
  • Justifying the decision
  • Finding various examples
Avoid

  • Fixating on one correct solution
  • Providing too much help
  • Doing the research for them
  • Focusing on the solution rather than the process