MelanieM Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Do you keep a timeline notebook? If so, can you tell me more about your approach, resources used, etc? I'd also love to see pictures/links if you have them, or have blogged about how this works in your family. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen500 Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinD Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 I printed my daughter's as a freebie off the Guest Hollow website. There are very nice binder covers to go with them and she enjoys using it. How we use it is to add people and dates a) as we study history, and b) when something occurs to her, such as when she discovered that A. Bell invented the telephone about ten years after Laura Ingalls Wilder was born. She has done this quite a few times, where information suddenly ties together in her thought process and she runs to write it in the timeline notebook, and I love seeing it happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 A friend of mine taught me how to bind my own books using a kit for bookbinding. I've been making all kinds of books for our home library but I was just at my friend's house and she showed me her latest creation. A timeline book that she made and her children fill in. She has the pages connected so you can either read it in book format or untie the hardcover binding and -voila- you can open it up to reveal a line timeline. I LOVED IT! She has only completely the one for Medieval history but plans on making one for each history cycle from now on. I'm debating on making a similar one but thinking of making it with thinly laminated pages so I can re-use mine over and over for each child. That way they can use dry-erase markers. I also heard about the clothes-line timeline someone on the forum did. That's where they strung a long line of twine and had printed out pre-made events/notecards and the children placed them in the order they occurred by using clothes pins. I love the tactile approach to this idea. I'm thinking it would be a fun addition to timelines. I would still want something more "accurate" where I can show the passage of time more accurately but love the hands-on approach to the time-clothline. I will probably incorporate them both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelanieM Posted May 15, 2011 Author Share Posted May 15, 2011 I printed my daughter's as a freebie off the Guest Hollow website. There are very nice binder covers to go with them and she enjoys using it. How we use it is to add people and dates a) as we study history, and b) when something occurs to her, such as when she discovered that A. Bell invented the telephone about ten years after Laura Ingalls Wilder was born. She has done this quite a few times, where information suddenly ties together in her thought process and she runs to write it in the timeline notebook, and I love seeing it happen. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm checking out the downloadables at GH right now. And what you described is *exactly* why I want to create a timeline book with the kids! I just love it when I get to witness those connections. :D A friend of mine taught me how to bind my own books using a kit for bookbinding. I've been making all kinds of books for our home library but I was just at my friend's house and she showed me her latest creation. A timeline book that she made and her children fill in. She has the pages connected so you can either read it in book format or untie the hardcover binding and -voila- you can open it up to reveal a line timeline. I LOVED IT! She has only completely the one for Medieval history but plans on making one for each history cycle from now on. I'm debating on making a similar one but thinking of making it with thinly laminated pages so I can re-use mine over and over for each child. That way they can use dry-erase markers. Wow! I'd love to see pictures of that! But I have to tell you that my first reaction to the dry erase comment was to scream Noooooo! This sounds like such a lovely idea for the kids to hold onto, and I bet it would be difficult to erase it all. I'm not normally into hanging onto lots of stuff, but something like this just sounds special. I also heard about the clothes-line timeline someone on the forum did. That's where they strung a long line of twine and had printed out pre-made events/notecards and the children placed them in the order they occurred by using clothes pins. I love the tactile approach to this idea. I'm thinking it would be a fun addition to timelines. I would still want something more "accurate" where I can show the passage of time more accurately but love the hands-on approach to the time-clothline. I will probably incorporate them both. What a great idea! Now I have to look around and see where we could put a clothes line timeline that would work for the whole year. Hmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 I printed this free one: http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/timeline.html And put it in a binder with sheet protectors for my daughter. She LOVES IT! She is always looking for more things to put on it, books we can read so we can add figures etc. This is a pretty simple solution. We use the timeline figures from HSITW, because it saves a lot of time looking for art, but maybe your children would enjoy drawing their own? :) By the way, I procrastinated FOREVER before I did this because I couldn't figure it out, but this is easy to do! BUT, now that I have a Notebookingpages membership, I'm really intrigued by their system. Pretty affordable and looks SO nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelanieM Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 Jennifer, I forgot all about the timeline pages at Notebooking Pages! I just bought my membership last week. (Yay! I've been on a printing frenzy. lol!) Now I need to go check out what's in their history package. Thanks for the reminder! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Ooh cool, thanks for the heads up Jennifer. I'm a member too but haven't been reading every email that comes my way. Printing Frenzy time!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sew happily ever after Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 simply charlotte mason has a book of centuries download with instructions how to print the pages and place them with 2 fronts facing each other. that leaves a blank space between each century. I will have my older girls file their notebook pages and maps behind the century it goes with. they will also place timeline figs on the actual pages. If we run out of room during certain time periods then we will add flaps onto each century as we need to. I like this method best as it leaves no "dead time". I think by the time we go through all 4 cycles of history their notebooks will actually be quite large so we may decide to keep separate notebooks for each time period (we are just getting ready to start ancients). Many of the free ones online have the dates similar to this (might not be an exact example, but you will get the idea.) 1800-1750 BC on one page and then 1700-1650 BC on the next. what do you do with a figure that needs to go at 1725 BC? That is just so frustrating for me! I have found that the book of centuries makes the best sense because all the time is the same and students can easily see that some events actually happened at the same time and that some periods in history were "busier" than others. :) For the younger set I cut 11 by 11 inch pieces of poster board (you can get 4 from each piece and I used 8 pieces total). Taped them all together in a long line with packing tape. Drew a line down the middle of it and labeled each piece with a century. Since we will be studying ancient history I used years BC until 1AD. Left the first 2 squares blank for events like creation, etc. accordion folded the entire thing and tied ribbon at the front and back. this way we can flip through it like a book or actually open it up and lay it out. I plan on making one for each of the 4 time periods covered in history (WTM recommendations). each time period will be its own color. ancients is yellow. Again if we need more room during a century then we will add flaps in the appropriate places. I saw this idea on the MOH1 yahoo group. there are pics in the picture files of different timelines and I thought this one was pretty cool, except they used foam core board instead of poster board. It turned out great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 We have done several things over the years. We have a timeline notebook that we bought about 15 years ago. It is full of cut and paste pictures from Beautiful Feet's timeline sets and drawings from the kids. It is almost as much fun to look through as old family photo albums. We have been round the cycle so many times though that there isn't much left for my youngest to add so we have a 3x5 card box with century tabs for him. Whenever a date comes up he makes a card and puts it in the file box. He gets fairly creative coloring them sometimes while I read history. We have also used a roll of brown paper wrapping (cut in half so it was just as long but 1/2 as tall) and made a time line scroll. We had a set of wall timelines from KONOS but I didn't like having it up all the time. We didn't and still don't have a room dedicated to school work only so it was just messy and cluttered and I didn't like the figures and such anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelanieM Posted May 19, 2011 Author Share Posted May 19, 2011 These ideas are fabulous! Thank you all! I bet my kids would love creating some of these timelines you all have mentioned. Now I just need to pick something and get started! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxing Hare Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 I love Add a Century's timeline, but I can't justify the cost. Maybe I can make one of my own like KristenR's friend did. http://www.addacentury.com/ideas/blog.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 I have a play date tentatively planned to meet up with my friend again this weekend. Maybe I can take a few pictures of her timeline and pass the link on to you. I love Add a Century's timeline, but I can't justify the cost. Maybe I can make one of my own like KristenR's friend did. http://www.addacentury.com/ideas/blog.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 We made ours out of 5x7 cards cut in half and taped along our hallway. My sons loved drawing the pictures to go with the dates. When it is finished, I will tape it onto cardstock and laminate the pages for his binder. Also, FIAR has some timeline templates you can print off for $19. http://fiarhq.com/fiveinarow.info/digitaltimeline.html The problem i have with most timelines is my oldest writes rather large and there isn't a space for drawing pictures. and it isn't moveable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Visited with my friend this weekend and she let me take some photos of her timeline book. I am pretty certain this is the route I will take for my kids. Check it out here on my blog and feel free to leave a comment if you have some suggestions or additions that I can add on to it. I'd love some advice before I set out on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rootsong Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Well, I created a timeline in a notebook that I thought was a really cool idea at the time, even though it didn't end up working for us. We used this for 5th & 6th grade. What I did was take a 3 inch binder. Then I took a roll of butcher paper & cut out six foot long strips, just tall enough to fit nicely in the binder. I chose 6 feet because that is how long our dining room table is. That way my son could easily open it & write anywhere on each strip on our table. I used a Sharpie to make lines every 6 inches & wrote dates at the top. Each six inches was a thousand years until more recent times when each century got 6 inches. I folded the 6 foot strips up accordian style & tucked them in the notebook. That way they were well protected from all my littles, in a handy notebook that you could just open up & unfold whatever strip (timeframe) we needed. Then, accordian fold it right back up again. It worked great, the pages stayed tidy (away from toddlers), and my son was able to add dates to it easily. What didn't work for us was that it was hidden! LOL My son would add dates & info to it, then stick in back in the binder in shelf. Out of sight, out of mind. He wasn't grasping historical event timing and how they related to each other. He just didn't see the darn thing all unfolded nearly enough. So this year, for 7th grade, I tossed the idea & stapled a giant line of white poster board across our dining room wall. :001_smile: He does all his schoolwork in there, plus we all have meals there. We all see the timeline constantly, and he's connecting dates & events much better now. That's what's worked for us. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sew happily ever after Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 That is exactly how mine is set up except I used poster board cut into 11 x 11 inch squares then taped together. Ours is for the ancient times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Out of sight, out of mind. He wasn't grasping historical event timing and how they related to each other. He just didn't see the darn thing all unfolded nearly enough. :D That's one of my fears in making the book format. I love how our Universe Timeline is out in the open and we can reference it daily or whenever something relevant comes up. I fear with a book I might get in the habit of leaving it on the shelf. (Especially, as you mentioned, to keep safe from toddler hands!) My thought process was if I do the book form I would supplement with a less accurate clothesline timeline version where I can hang the information somewhere prominent and have key events and such but the book would be used for greater detail..... I love your idea - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paceofnature Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 Visited with my friend this weekend and she let me take some photos of her timeline book. I am pretty certain this is the route I will take for my kids. Check it out here on my blog and feel free to leave a comment if you have some suggestions or additions that I can add on to it. I'd love some advice before I set out on it. Thank you so much for sharing this! I like how it can accordion out and yet be tucked away. I found these that could be attached to the back to hold the timeline in the binder. I can't wait to do this with the kids this year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelanieM Posted May 23, 2011 Author Share Posted May 23, 2011 Kristen, thanks so much for taking those photos! It really helps to see pictures of what's been described. :D Love the idea of using index cards taped over the stairs, and the newsprint folded accordian style! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyerin Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 This may or may not be what you're asking about , but I used to teach 3rd grade at a classical school. We started our 4 year history cycle in 3rd, so I taught the ancients. We used these sketch books and they would write their narration of the history lesson (we used Veritas press timeline cards and SOTW) and illustrate it. I probably had them do a timeline book entry 2-3 times a month (we covered roughly one card/topic per week) and it was a great way to combine both a history and a writing assignment. By the end of the year, they had a book of history through the Romans that they could flip back through. The books were always a highlight with the parents and the kids--great keepsake! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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