The Math Map Book Club videos – Where do I start?
When Classical Conversations officially launched The Math Map in Challenge A a few years ago, I devoted myself to becoming familiar with it because I would be tutoring my daughter’s class as they went through it for the first time. Since my first tour through the Naturals domain (required preparation for ChA tutors and a great starting place for anyone, especially since it is available on CC Connected to all currently enrolled CC families), I’ve gone through the curriculum multiple times with five of my children using various domains. One of the resources that has helped me along the way has been The Math Map Book Club, where Leigh Bortins (the founder of Classical Conversations) and Dr. Kirsty Gilpin, who developed the curriculum, discuss it with a group of “lead learners.” However, I’ve found it can be a bit intimidating to dive into these Book Club videos because there are so many episodes, and each time they’ve gone through the curriculum, they focus on a different aspect. To help make it a little less daunting, I’ve created a list with brief descriptions that can hopefully help you know where to start. I’ll end with a couple recommendations based on different circumstances.
The Math Map Book Club has now gone through several cycles, which Leigh Bortins has posted on her YouTube channel. I find it easiest to use the yearly playlists she has made. (Unfortunately, some of these are incomplete. Thankfully, I think all the missing episodes are included on the “All Episodes” playlist.) Hopefully this list can you can decide what might be the most helpful to you. (You can also find a schedule with the title of every episode on Leigh’s website.)
- 2023 Math Map Book Club These go through each lesson in the Naturals, exploring the ideas and spending some time on the artwork/Exordium. They’re less practical and more about finding beauty in the math. I found them a bit overwhelming when I was first starting with TMM.
- 2024 Math Map Book Club
- (Jan.- May) The first 15 episodes go through 2 lessons each week, still focusing on the Naturals domain. (Here’s the first episode in this series.)
- (Summer) 6 episodes go through the dimensions, then 3 on the Quadrivium and a “Special” episode.
- Starts with the “Summer Book Club 0D” episode.
- The 0D has great tailoring suggestions.
- Week 2: 1D is missing from this playlist, but you can find it here.
- The 2D talks about having multiple students using different domains at home.
- Starts “The Quadrivium: 0D”.
- Week 7 “0D” (Starts with some Q&A. Actual planned teaching starts here. (Not really about 0D; more of an introduction to the Quadrivium)
- Week 8: 2D (Arithmetic) is missing from this playlist, but you can find it here.
- Week 9 3D (Astronomy)
- Week 10 4D (Harmonics) and nD (imagination)
- Week 11 “Special: At the Table” Compares pages from a few different domains using the 5 Common Topics. (The first part is talking about what was being released in 2025, so I would start here.)
- Starts with the “Summer Book Club 0D” episode.
- July – December (starting 7/31) These episodes through the Complex domain, demonstrating how it will be used in community with ChA students), back at Lesson 1, (Goes through Lesson 17, followed by 3 episodes of Q&A)
- 2025 Math Map Book Club This playlist has a LOT missing (It really only includes the last series, on using TMM at home, starting with Lesson 7, skipping Lesson 8 and Lesson 12, but then covering the rest through 17), but you can find everything on the “All Episodes” playlist. I still wanted to describe what they went through this year for the sake of clarity, and I’ve included links to the first episode of each series.
- Although they did complete the series going through Complex at the beginning of 2025, those episodes are not on the 2025 playlist linked above. Here’s Lesson 18.
- The Summer episodes also didn’t make it onto the 2025 playlist. They went through the games/activities from the back covers of the booklets (2/week), starting with “Week 1: Number Knockout & Place Value”
- July-December – They went through 1 booklet a week, focusing on using TMM at home. Here’s Lesson 1: Ex Nihilo. After Lesson 17, there are 3 weeks of Q&A.
- 2026 Math Map Book Club (still in progress as I update this document)
- Jan-May – They finish the series on using TMM at home (a couple episodes are out of order, but they’re all in this playlist).
- Summer – These episodes don’t necessarily go through the lessons, but they cover some basic ideas. Leigh described the series as kind of an expanded FAQ. Here’s a list of the topics
- Week 1: What is a Unit?
- Week 2: Measured or Exact?
- Week 3: Counting Units
- Week 4: Counting with Place Value
- Week 5: Counting in Base n
- Week 6: Adding with Place Value
- Week 7: Subtracting with Place Value
- Week 8: Multiplying with Place Value & The Distributive Law
- Week 9: Multiplying in Different Forms
- Week 10: Division
- Week 11: Factorization
- Week 12: Division Using Fractions
- Week 13: Simplifying Fractions
- Week 14: Adding and Subtracting Fractions
- July-December (in progress) – They are walking through each booklet using Rationals and Binomials practicing the classical tools.
So where you should start? Here’s what I recommend:
If you’re a Challenge family using the Complex, Monomials, or Binomials domains, I would watch the following videos in this order each week as time allows:
- Start by watching the corresponding videos for each lesson from the 2nd half of the 2024 Math Map Book Club (starting with Lesson 1), which focus on the Complex domain and go through each booklet the way we do in community.
- The 2026 videos that started in July might end up being helpful as well.
If you’re using one of the lower domains intended for Foundations age students, I would recommend starting in the middle of the 2024 Math Map Book Club:
- Start with the “Summer 0D” episode from 2024 and watch all the summer ones titled by the dimensions. (The 0D has great tailoring suggestions, the 2D talks about having multiple students using different domains at home.)
- Then I would go back to the beginning of the 2024 Book Club. The first 15 lessons go through 2 lessons each week, still focusing on the Naturals domain.
- As you go through the year, I would watch the episodes from late 2025/early 2026 starting with Lesson 1: Ex Nihilo
- Again, the later 2026 videos may also end up being helpful.
I’ll probably write a few more posts related to The Math Map based on things people commonly ask me. If there’s something specific that you’d like me to address, drop a comment.