Data: A Practical Handbook

Principais ideias

• Start a family data notebook with five columns, date, who, what, amount and note, and one sheet for each question you want answered.
• Write a one-line rule for every column, such as dates as year-month-day and minutes as plain numbers, so everyone records things alike.
• Spend ten minutes each Sunday sorting columns, removing duplicates, marking blanks as missing and fixing spellings, always on a copy of the raw sheet.
• Use bars to compare people and a line for change over time, start bars at zero, and let your child write a title stating the finding.
• Share family sheets with named people rather than anyone with the link, leave out details the question does not need, and keep asking who can see this.

Dentro deste bit

1. Setting up a family data notebook

   A family data notebook is one place where your household writes down the things it wants to understand: library books borrowed, chores done, rain collected in a jar, bus times to school. It can be a free spreadsheet app on a shared phone or a squared notebook stuck to the fridge.

2. Rules that make everyone record alike

   The moment two people write in the same sheet, they record things differently. One child types 15, another types 15 mins, a third writes quarter hour, and the column can no longer be added up.

3. The Sunday ten-minute clean

   Even careful families make entry mistakes, so set aside ten minutes a week to tidy the sheet. Work on a copy, or keep an untouched raw tab, so any slip can be undone.

4. Answering a question on a Tuesday evening

   With a clean sheet, most family questions take fifteen minutes and three tools that every spreadsheet has. Filter shows only the rows you care about, such as one child or one month.

5. Making one honest chart with your child

   A chart is where many children get hooked on data, so make it together. Follow four steps.

6. Keeping family records private

   Family data is often personal: names, ages, schools, routines, where you are and when. Treat it the way you treat house keys, and repeat a short routine every few months to keep it under control.