Our Timeline Books

We've gone through a variety of timeline formats in the history of our homeschool.  We started with a wall timeline chart with pictorial images, but it was unwieldy and awkward and was always falling off the wall.  So that turned out to be a fail.   Then we tried a binder timeline with pictorial images, which was better.  However, by the end of that school year, it had pretty well fizzled too – in part because the binder was clunky and so I often *forgot* (ahem) to pull it out.  The printing of images was also too dependent on me and wasn't allowing Michelle to form enough of her own connections, which is a big part of the value of keeping some kind of a timeline.  So we dropped that idea too.   Last summer, we started a Stream of History Chart as described in The Living Page, and that is still working well for us.  In the post in which I described that chart, I mentioned that I was toying with different ideas to replace the binder timeline.  Today, I wanted to share what we ended up with because I have been quite pleased with how it has worked out for us.   It was inspired by an idea shared by another lady over on the Ambleside Online forum.  This is our take on that idea.

 

I started with one of these Moleskine notebooks.  The pages pull out accordion fold style but close back up into a slim little book that is easy to store and easy to grab when we want to add something.   Because I now have two official students and therefore two identical timeline books floating around my house, I printed their initials in a fancy font onto sticker paper to stick onto the front covers to easily tell them apart.

 

 

Stretched out on the table

 

The idea is along the same lines as Miss Mason describes herself here in Volume 1, just in a little book that can be folded away rather than a large sheet of paper or wall chart. Each page is one century. I started with the present century in the front of the book and worked backwards through the centuries AD.  The flip side of the pages work back through the centuries BC.   When we come across something we want to enter, we very simply add that name or event into its correct century.  With my Year 1 student, we do this together directly after reading – I'll ask him at the end of a historical reading if there is anything he wants to add, and then I help him find the correct century and add it.   On Fridays, I ask my Year 3 student to think of 2-3 people or events that she has read about that week that she would like to add. I am starting to teach her how to look up the dates online when they aren't mentioned in the book we are reading so she can add them for herself.

 

This term's history (Year 3, Term 1)  has focused in heavily on the 1500's.  You can see the list of names she has collected here.

 

Here's a 2-page spread from James' book (Year 1, Term 1)

 

 

For the centuries BC, I only went back to 2000BC, and then added one more page titled 'dates before 2000BC'.  This left about three blank pages left at the end of the book.  James, my Year 1 student, hasn't used these pages yet.  Michelle (Year 3)  is keeping a running list of all the Kings and Queens of England that we have read about in Our Island Story on one of the pages, and chose to copy the family tree chart we made to help us understand the Wars of the Roses onto another page.  We'll see what else we come up with to do with these pages as time goes on.

 

 

 

My plan is to continue keeping these books through our first history rotation – which in AO goes through the first term of Year 6.  When they start back at the ancients again in the second term of Year 6, I will have them start keeping a 'real' Book of Centuries (like Jeanne describes here).  I hope to purchase a Book Of Centuries while we are in the States this coming year so I can start keeping one for myself.  I find the best way to train my children in 'keeping' habits is to 'keep' right along with them.  

 

Click Here for More Keeping Inspiration

 

The Stream of History Chart

One of my favorite sections out of Laurie Bestvater's new book The Living Page was the section on Time Tools.  In that section she described a variety of different kinds of time charts and time lines used at various stages in Charlotte Mason's schools, and what a Book of Centuries was really intended to be (not my topic for today, but suffice it to say that it is not just another  timeline book).  It was all really quite fascinating to me, and has me rethinking the way we are using timelines and time charts in our home.  Our first wall timeline was a fail – it was too unwieldy and kept falling down, so we ended up retiring it fairly quickly.  The past couple of years, we have been using a timeline in a binder which has worked better…although the binder is kind of clunky, and I'm realizing that I probably shouldn't be using pre-printed timeline figures for Michelle to paste on to the right page.  I'm tossing around a couple of ideas for a replacement for her (and to start with James when he begins Year 1 in January).   What particularly intrigued me at the moment, however, was the Stream of History chart.  Bestvater referenced this Parent's Review article, and particularly this paragraph:

 

"It is to be understood that we have already provided ourselves with a condensed chart representing the 3,000 years of history, during which the stream, which has now become the river of modern history, may be traced with some degree of definiteness towards its earliest sources. Such a chart might easily be condensed to such an extent as to be made conveniently visible as a whole, say within the compass of at most a yard in length. On such a scale periods of ten years can be distinctly differentiated, while definite years may be clearly distinguished when necessary by the addition of one or two numerals. The facts recorded should be few, selected with care--key facts to the history of the time in which they occur, selected also in a catholic spirit, to represent, without bias, the real historical weight of the various political forces, which, in order to serve their purpose of historical landmarks, should already, before being introduced upon the chart, have been made thoroughly familiar to the pupil. The duration of dynasties, prolonged wars, social and religious movements, &c., might be made visible by the use of continuous lines, which will prove of great value in linking together successive events."

 

I loved the idea of this chart – compact size, easily visible, showing some carefully selected main events.   But at the same time, I had a hard time picturing it.  How to fit 3ooo years of history in the space of a yard?!   So I decided to start playing around with it and see what I came up with.  Here are my results:

  

 

I taped together three pieces of cardstock end-to-end, and carefully ruled a line across the center.  I marked off one inch for each century, which allowed me to include from 1000 BC to the present day.  We won't study ancient history in depth until Year 6, so I'm not terribly concerned about not having a space to add dates prior to 1000 BC right now.  I added in a couple of key points of reference – the life of Jesus in relation to the BC/AD dividing line, and the birthdates of my children in the early 2000's, my husband and I in the 1970's, and the children's grandparents in the late 1940's and early 1950's.

 

 

I also went ahead and added in some of the key events that we have studied already in this first term of Year 2: Alfred the Great, Leif Erickson, William the Conqueror, The Crusades.   We will continue to add other key events as we come to them.  I had a hard time imagining how just the MAJOR events could fit on a timeline this small, but adding only 3-5 events each term shouldn't overcrowd it, I hope.  It actually might be a really good exercise for us to decide just what those key events and key people ought to be at the end of the term.

 

 

Here it is up on the wall!  I posted it right underneath our map since the map gets referenced often.  I'm hopeful that the history chart will get referenced often as well since it's in the same place and all. J

 

Has anyone else constructed a compact history chart like this?  I'd love to see it if you have!

 

 

Something New To Us This Year: History Timeline Notebook

Last year, we attempted to keep a wall timeline with our history readings.    We ran into a couple of problems with that.

 

The first problem was that because it had to fit on the WALL, we were limited in space.  I only allowed half a page for each century.  This might be fine if you want to do a simple “list” style timeline, but not so much if you want to add images.   We very quickly ran out of space in certain centuries, with lots of blank spots in others.

 

The other problem is that it KEPT FALLING DOWN.   So in the end…we ditched it.  It was just too frustrating.

 

So, for this year, we decided to start again, and this time we are doing a timeline notebook.   I also decided to switch curriculums to Ambleside Online, beginning with Year 1 – another good reason to start fresh.  (Why we switched to AO…well that’s a topic for another time ;-)

 

The basic setup is similar to our wall timeline.  The opening page starts with Creation:

 

 

Then we have a two page spread for events prior to 2000 BC.  Regardless of if you hold to a “young earth” or “old earth” view of origins, many dates before this are in dispute, and I just didn’t want to get into that with my very young students.  

 

 

Then after that, we have a two page spread for each century until the present, with a tab to divide the ‘BC’ years from the ‘AD’  years.   I inserted our family (including grandparents) in their appropriate spaces too (the kids are featured on the AD 2000 page.) 

 

 

 

 The additional tabs in the back are for adding any appropriate notebook pages, maps, or other documents and projects we may do as we go along. There is one tab for each major era: Ancients, Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation, Early Modern, and Modern. We haven’t done a whole lot that with that yet, however, other than to add a notebook page about our artist for the term.

At the end of every AO week, we add the figures for any historical people we studied that week.   Already, we’re starting to discover who lived around the same time as whom.   Over time, we’ll start to see even more of the big picture and make even more connections. 

 

 

It is my intention to continue with this same notebook for AO Years 1-6, which represents the first “pass” through history.   For Years 7-12 (the second “pass” through history), we’ll probably look into keeping a true Book of Centuries – something like this.  Each of my younger children will begin their own notebook when they start AO Year 1, when they are around 6.5-7 years old.

 

 

Oh…and about our timeline figures: many of them were taken from the Homeschool in the Woods Timeline figures CD, and the rest I did a simple search on Google to find images for the figures that weren’t included in the set.  I continue to use the Homeschool in the Woods figures because I have them, but if I could go back and do it over again, I’m not sure that I would buy the CD.  While they are lovely, it is just as easy to search on Google for an appropriate image as to search the CD and Google has the advantage of being free.  (All that to say, if you’re on a budget, I’d recommend saving your money for something else.)   I went through and printed a full set of figures for the entirety of AO Year 1, organized by weeks ahead of time.   This is a necessity for me, because the chances of it actually getting done if I don’t organize ahead of time are slim to none.   It’s a little tedious, but then it’s done for the whole year (and the document saved for future students!!)  Later on down the road, I may let each child decide who they want to include in their notebook – perhaps when they are old enough to search for and print their own images.   We’ll see.  For now this system is working well for us.

 
So there you have it...our history notebook!

 

How We Do History

This is the first in what will eventually become a series of posts looking a little closer at how we are tackling different school subjects at various ages and stages.   Because we recently got our history timeline up and running, I thought I'd start there for you this week.

Originally I had planned to start with Simply Charlotte Mason's History Modules this year.   But, when we realized that a) we were going to be in language school this year and b) I read numerous threads on the SCM Forum about families finding that their first graders didn't really connect well with some of the resources used in Module 1, I decided to hold off on these for a couple of years.  Currently, my plan is to start the SCM History Modules when Michelle is in Grade 3.  This still gives us time to go through all 6 of them by the time she finishes middle school, leaving our options for high school wide open.
So...in the meantime, I was looking for something simple that would lay a good foundation for future in-depth history studies.   And what I landed on was the Heritage History Young Reader's Curriculum (also a helpful review here.)  This is a good fit for us right now because a) it uses e-books which reduces the amount of books we have to move around with us during these next couple of transitional years, b) it is simple and very flexible, and c) does present a good overview of World and American history.  We plan to use this curriculum this year and next - which will get us through our major transition to Africa as well.

To begin with I have chosen to use Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans for American History, Thirty More Famous Stories Retold for World History, and The Book of Legends.  We read American History 2 days a week, World History 2 days a week, and Legends once a week.  Every couple of paragraphs, I stop reading and ask Michelle to tell me about what I have read so far.  At the end, I have her tell me something interesting from the story that she remembers.  (This is what Charlotte Mason called 'narration'.)  Then, when applicable, we color and add a figure to our timeline.  I usually do a little review and ask her about a couple of the people we've already read about each day too.  And that's it folks!  Simple.

This is our timeline. 

We are mostly using the Homeschool in the Woods timeline figures, supplemented with stuff I hunted up online when someone I wanted to include wasn't included in the set.  I printed these onto sticker paper (brilliant idea from one of the other moms on the SCM Forum!).  I went ahead and printed up all the characters that I thought we'd cover this year all at once which was a bit tedious, but now it's done.   I also did figures for the Bible characters that we'll cover through our morning Bible stories to add to the timeline as well.

Before we started reading our history stories we spent a week putting some foundational events onto it.   We went through the days of Creation for the "In the Beginning" page:

(There is so much controversy over the exact dates of early history, even among Christian, creation-based resources, that I opted not to use dates on events before 2000 BC - everything before that just goes onto the "In the Beginning" page.  For our purposes now, I think it is good enough to establish the fact that God is the one that created the earth in the Beginning, and that all the rest of history flows from that Beginning.)
Then we added our family (the kids, us, and their grandparents) into the AD 1900 and AD 2000 centuries:

Then we added The Birth of Jesus to the middle of the timeline.

We talked about how dates marked "BC" are events and people that lived before Jesus was born and that we count backwards from there all the way back to the beginning.  Dates marked AD happened after Jesus was born, and we count forward all the way up to now.   She has really connected with this idea, which surprised me because I thought it was a little abstract for a 6 year old.

After each Bible or history reading we color our stickers, and stick them up in the appropriate century. We count back how many centuries it takes us to get to a certain date, which gives us an idea of how long ago something happened. I'm not worried about her learning any exact dates yet, but I do want her to gain an understanding of the scope of history, and to be able to recognize names and maybe a few facts about key historical people.  These are hooks or scaffolding to help us build a framework for more in-depth history studies later on.

And that's it folks: how we are handling first and second grade history!