Table Talk Math: A Practical Guide for Bringing Math Into Everyday Conversations

Exploring math with your kids can be fun. Really! Maybe you love math. Maybe you still remember anxiety you felt as a student in math class. Either way, your kids are learning from you and deciding whether or not they are “good at” math. How can you help ensure that your children and teens learn to love math? Talk about it! Make it fun and casual and interesting. (And please, make sure math conversations aren’t just about grades.) Bring math into your everyday conversations. It’s simple because… Math is everywhere! From cooking (and eating) to playing games to estimating how much toilet paper is left on a roll to creating elaborate patterns with LEGO bricks, you don’t have to look far to find numbers to wonder about with your kids. In Table Talk Math, John Stevens offers ideas for initiating authentic, math-based conversations that can benefit (and be fun for) everyone at the table—no matter how young or old. The more often you can get your kids to notice and be curious about all the numbers, patterns, and equations in the world around them, the more likely they are to start thinking about math as something that is fun, even if it isn’t always easy. And that’s when you’ll really have something to talk about.