Timeline Books

Timeline Options

Many homeschoolers are familiar with the idea of using timelines to organize their history studies. Seeing the events of history arranged in a graphically organized chronology enables us to see relationships between people, places, and cultures that we might not otherwise perceive. Published timelines are available, such as the comprehensive, phonebook-sized Timetables of History or the beautifully illustrated, fold-out edition of The Wall Chart of World History. We own and use both of these as resources.

However, we are also firm believers in the theory that when you create something, you make it your own, and it is on this basis that we decided to make our own timeline books to accompany our study of history. Some homeschoolers use published "do-it-yourself" timeline books, such as the ones marketed by Atco School Supplies. We've not seen these, but from the descriptions they sound appealing and easy to use. We have friends who have created stunning timelines on the walls of their homes, and there is much to be said for being able to see the whole panorama of history laid out before you. However, we don't have adequate wall space to devote to such a large undertaking, so we have chosen to create our own timeline books from scratch, using a blank timeline sheet that we created in WordPerfect 7, a stack of page protectors, and a view-front 3-ring binder.

Planning Your Own Book

The first thing to consider in setting up your timeline book is how you want your individual page to be organized. You will most likely want to have an actual timeline running across the top of the page; this is where you will indicate the date boundaries for the events listed on the page below the line. You won't write any dates until your blank timeline page has been created, so for now you'll want to leave the line blank.

In planning the section below the timeline, you can choose to leave the entire page blank or to divide it up into sections. If you think you would like to divide the page, how many sections will you need? What categories will you choose?

Here is how our books are set up. Each page has a horizontal line running across the top of the page, with twenty-one 1/4-inch vertical lines branching down. The dates are written below these lines -- one at the beginning (on the lefthand side of the page), one at the middle, and one at the end (on the righthand side of the page). These dates are written in by hand for each page after the photocopies are made.

Below the timeline itself, our pages are divided into four horizontal sections where we can place our entries. The top section is labeled "politics", the second is "science and technology", the third is "religion and philosophy", and the fourth is "art & music". More divisions would reduce the amount of space in each section too much, so we try to classify everything within these four broad categories.

Once you have the individual pages ready to photocopy, you will need to determine how many years you want to put on each page. Some people prefer to keep the number of years consistent across the entire scope of their book, but in practical terms we find that to be a bit unwieldy. Many of the early centuries are left blank because we just don't have enough information to fill the pages, but later centuries are crammed with inventions, discoveries, events and people that we don't want to have to leave out for lack of space.

We have chosen to use a format that begins with 100 years per page for the 5000 years before Christ and progresses gradually to shorten the length of time displayed on each page, with sections of 50 years per page up through the Middle Ages, then 25 years per page through the Renaissance and the Colonial era, and finally 10 years through to modern times. Once you've got your pages calculated, you can run your photocopies of the blank timeline page onto paper the color of your choice.

Constructing Your Book

Our books begin with a title page and proceed through several undated Biblical events before beginning with the actual timeline itself. Here's what they include. We have three books, one for each daughter and one for Mom. Our title pages are all the same, just typed up in WordPerfect 7 and inserted into a page protector so that it is visible as the first page of the book. Behind it in the same page protector, Mom has an internet reprint of Michelangelo's Creation of the Heavens, from the Sistine Chapel. In the next page protector, making a two-page spread with the first picture, is an internet reprint of Michelangelo's Creation of Man, also from the Sistine Chapel.

Our children do not have these pictures in their books; instead they have two pages depicting the Seven Days of Creation, with their own artwork such as you see here. This was their first project in the Veritas Press Old Testament and Ancient Egypt history curriculum. Following these pages we include full-page internet reprints of Dore's illustrations of The Fall, Cain and Abel, The Flood, and The Tower of Babel, which also correspond to the Veritas curriculum. After that, we begin the timeline proper.

Now is the time to begin adding dates to your pages according to your plan. After the first page, each following page begins with the same date that the previous page ended with -- i.e., page 1 of the timeline proper begins with 5000 BC and ends with 4900 BC; page 2 then begins with 4900 BC and ends with 4800 BC; and page 3 begins with 4800 BC. I only record the years at the beginning, middle, and end of the timeline on each page, and then use the undated line markers on the timeline to find the approximate place to put the entries. If I am particularly concerned about knowing an exact date, I record it with the entry itself (such as the King James Bible in 1611), otherwise I just write the event under the appropriate place on the timeline and don't put the exact date. There's no reason why you can't include dates with every entry if you wish, though.

Once all of our pages are dated, we begin putting them back-to-back in page protectors and insert them into a 2-inch, 3-ring binder. If you want to follow this method, *don't* hole-punch the pages! Page protectors keep the sheets clean and tight in the book, and they also prevent the stickers from peeling off. We keep extra blank pages in the back pocket of the books for convenience, in case we make a mistake on a page and want to re-do it.

Using Your Book

Once the blank book is completed, you can begin to add entries to the individual pages. We started our books by personalizing them with our own birth years, the date of Christ's birth and death, and a few historical events which the children already knew -- such as the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620, the voyage of Columbus in 1492, the first moonwalk in 1969, and the introduction of the King James Bible in 1611.

Instead of having the children spend hours drawing illustrations or having Mom spend hours looking for useable illustrations online, we have chosen to use stickers to brighten our pages. Over the years, we had collected a large box of stickers in a variety of themes, and this seemed as good a use for them as any! For our own birthdates, we have stickers that read "God made me special"; for the birth of Christ, our stickers have a shortened version of John 3:16; for Christ's death on the cross -- a cross; for the King James Bible -- a Bible; and so on.

Then we added a few more things that we had studied -- composers (composer stickers), artists (art tools stickers), planet discovery dates (planet stickers), and some other miscellaneous historical facts that we knew (Johnny Appleseed -- an apple sticker, etc.). From there we went into the Veritas OT/Ancient Egypt curriculum, using Egyptian-themed stickers, crowns, dreidels, banners, praying hands, books, musical notes, oil lamps, art tools, and other "miscellaneous but generally related" stickers. We get most of our stickers from the local teachers' store, but we also keep an eye out for them in stationery stores, discount stores, and so on.

We like using stickers because they make for a neat but colorful page, using them saves a lot of time, they're small and leave more room for additional information, and it's fun to collect stickers and look for just the right one to record a particular event.

Extras

Once you have started to use your timeline book, you will probably find that there are certain events that you want to cover in more depth. For this, we have run off blank timeline pages in a contrasting color. Our main pages ended up being pink because, well, I have two girls, and pink is their favorite color. ;-) Our alternate timeline color is blue. With the alternate-color timeline pages, we can create intensive mini-timelines on a different scale than the rest of the book -- such as a 5-year Civil War timeline, which might have 3- or 6-month divisions per page.

Another thing we have started working on is having each of our daughters create a mini-timeline of their own lives. Our older daughter has already made up a list of events and dates to put on hers, including baby milestones, lost teeth, braces, first dance class, first trip on a boat, first time on a train, lots of other firsts, vacation trips, etc. For these personal pages, we will also use personalized paper rather than the regular timeline layout.

All of these alternate-color timeline pages will be placed in page protectors just as the rest of the book is, and will be inserted between the pages of the major timeline where the initial date of the mini-timeline is found.

Encouragement

We hope you will consider creating your own timeline books with your children. Whether you create one book for the whole family or a separate book for each person, you're sure to be surprised when you see the various people and events that share any given page. Timeline books can make learning history fun!