Maria's Math News, Vol. 58, December 2011
I love teaching, and I love math. This newsletter is my way of reaching out and helping you to teach it, too.
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Then, the members of TOS Homeschool Crew have recently finished writing a bunch of new reviews about Math Mammoth. There are nearly 100 reviews in total, which you can access here.
TOS Review: Math Mammoth from Miscellaneous Musings
"My daughter took a break from her other math curriculum and began focusing just on fractions with the Math Mammoth blue series which includes explanations. About three weeks later she was able to test out of an entire text on fractions."
TOS Review Math Mammoth from Circling Through This Life. This review contains the cutest picture of a stuffed mammoth standing next to this girl's math work!
"She really enjoys it. She calls it her "Elephant Math" and insists that Manny, her woolly mammoth do math with her."
Review: Math Mammoth from Footprints in the Butter
"And I started this school year completely stressed about what to do with math. So finding out I'd be reviewing Math Mammoth again this year was a gift from God."
Math Mammoth -- A TOS Crew Review from Mountaineer Country
"Do you know what my daughter said to me? She said, rather mattor-of-factly, "Why haven't we been doing this all along? I love this math."
Math Mammoth~ TOS Review from Adventures in Unsell Land!
"We have used quite a few various math programs through the years between our 6 children and I have never seen one that is as strong on the mental math as Math Mammoth is. It's my favorite aspect of this program."
Math, it's a Mammoth responsibility from A Teaching Heart
"It is suggested that you introduce multiplication before division, but other than that, you can proceed through the lessons as you wish. I find that mixing up the learning of multiplication with other math concepts gives Hunter's brain a chance to process and retain facts. So we will be jumping around the books all year."
Percent videos - these videos match many of the lessons in my book Math Mammoth Percent (Blue Series book), or the lessons in chapter 9 of Grade 5-B (Light Blue series), or chapter 6 in Grade 6-B (Light Blue series). 
Fraction videos, part 1 - these videos match many of the lessons in my book Math Mammoth Fractions 1(Blue Series book), or the lessons in chapter 5 of Grade 5-B (Light Blue series).
Geometry videos, part 1 - the first videos on this page match many of the lessons in my book Math Mammoth Geometry 1 (Blue Series book), or the lessons in chapter 6 of Grade 4-B (Light Blue series).
Presentation of the Class and the School
I am a 1st, 5th and 6th grade teacher in south Belgium. My school is what we call an "immersive school". The students are taught in French, their mother tongue, 14 periods a week. During the other 10 periods each week, class is given in English—the students are "immersed" in the language from the age of 5 and learn to speak this language in a very natural manner.
Because of these awkward hours, we teachers "share" the classes. In order to have a full schedule, I give class in English 10 hours a week in 5th grade, 10 hours a week in 6th grade and 4 hours a week in 1st grade. We also split the subjects between French and English—and Geometry is one of the subjects seen in English.
Now, the immersive program is not without its downfalls, one of which being that we must consecrate two times as many periods per week on Language Arts, as we have both the French and the English language to teach. As a result, we have less time to teach everything else.
I am also a first-year teacher, thrown into this system with no life-lines to cling to! I was searching desperately for a guide, something to help me, but also for something that would help my students understand this subject that is such a part of our everyday lives, yet seemingly so abstract. When I saw Maria Miller's offer—one "free" e-book in exchange for a report of my experiences—I couldn't turn it up! So, without further ado, here is what I have to say about Math Mammoth.
Session 1
I started the year teaching lines and angles to both the 5th and 6th graders. Most of the 5th graders did poorly on the test and some of the 6th graders needed a refresher course.