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timelines in early elementary


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I was wondering how other folks have approached timeline work with their early elementary school-aged kids?

 

My oldest is in second grade and we -- or, more accurately, I -- have made two attempts at keeping a full-on timeline. We used the Add-a-Century book for a bit, then moved to the Pandia Press History Odyssey wall timelines. Both of these products are very nice, but I feel as though we'd be better off using them when my kids are a bit older. For one thing, the person who is most interested in the timeline is me. Furthermore, at this point I am going for a sense of the broad sweep of history, and I think there's been a bit of losing-the-forest-for-the-trees with this approach.

 

That said, I'm reluctant to completely abandon timeline work. We do not keep strictly to the four-year history cycle and being able to refer to at least a general timeline when discussing various events and books would be so useful.

 

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

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I find timelines with younger kids easier to do when each entry is one page unto itself. One page in a notebook, one index card clipped onto a clothesline style string, etc. Single entries, arranged in order, not lumped together on one master timeline. I think it is easier for little ones this way, visually and technically. In the early years, it is fine to do a single entry per week, about the most significant historic event covered. For our first two years, when we did American history, the timeline entries were nothing more than illustrated copywork pages. Two birds and all that. :)

 

ETA: Some people will say not to even bother with them in grammar stage. That is valid. However, my kids really benefitted from seeing the flow and sequence. Seeing it day in and day out truly does help a kid own the knowledge.

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I like Alte Veste Academy's suggestion for index cards on string. I like the idea of timeline but it seems like we just haven't been consistent with it. I, too, think it helps the kids to visually see what was going on in a time period.

Basically, I am listening, I have no help.

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We made a timeline on string (strung around our banister). I found it to be easier for this age. The whole timeline is visible and easy to find where things go. Besides the historical facts we were studying, we added personal cards too:birthdays, marriages, and anything dd wanted to add as the year went on. Benefits we got...reading large numbers and arranging them in order, finding where a large number goes on a number line (timelines are just big number lines), constant review of events, seeing her life events over a course of the year.

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We have the timeline cards from CC attached to a string. I really have loved learning the timeline, and so has Asher. When we hear/read about something new, I try to show him where it would be on the timeline. We went to a concert today and they referenced the Baroque period and the Industrial Revolution, and we were able to come home and find them on the timeline.

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In our house I made a basic timeline and then printed a small card with a picture, name, and date for each section of each chapter in our spine. About every 6 weeks we lay out the timeline and update it. My dc each take a card and "remind" us what the important points were and then figure out where it goes on the timeline. This also gives us an opportunity to make contemporaneous connections between different parts of the world.

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We use the Sonlight timelines with the timeline pictures from Homeschool in the Woods. My kids love their timelines. We don't make a big deal out of it, though. We only put major events on the timelines, so we only add to them about once a week or so. When we were studying world history we put all of the timeline entries beneath the timeline. Now that we are studying American history, we put all of the timeline entries above the timeline. It has really helped them get a sense of American history within the larger context of world history. My kids love looking back through their timelines.

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We've tried a number of things, but it's hard to keep them up. I've found that timelines work better for us when we build a decent sized one together as a sort of review. So we just stop and check in with history and timelines once or twice a year depending. It's a bit haphazard, but it lets us really focus on one for a bit and then let it go.

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I think a timeline is more suited to a logic-stage child. In the elementary years we really just go for the "broad sweep of history" approach without fussing too much about dates.

 

Though I like Alte Vesta's ideas. We do keep history notebooks with illustrated narrations so the kids can flip through and see stuff more or less in order. But, if it's not working, no harm in ditching it until the next go-'round with history.

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We use timeline books, which I made out of large blank sketchbooks. For grammar stage my son picks out one or two people, events, or inventions that grabbed his attention during that week's lesson and we add them to the timeline. Granted, I sometimes steer him to add certain things I feel are important. My logic stage child is working through his book a second time and he picks one person, etc from each lesson and I assign a couple to add.

 

The timeline is a tool, and having it in book form makes it easy to store and the kids (especially my older son) like to flip through it from time to time. The timeline didn't help my older that much in grammar stage, or so it seemed. Now that he's working through it a second time and using the same timeline, the pictures he glued in 4+ years ago nudge his memory. For example, "Oh yeah! I forgot all about the Norman invasion! Can we check out a book on that tapestry thing we read about in second grade?" So while it seems almost pointless in early grammar, it really was laying down a solid foundation for logic stage.

 

On the flip side, I couldn't stand a wall timeline. It would have to placed in our living room and it's just not my idea of an attractive decor item for the next 12 years.

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Thanks so much for all of the replies. This has been incredibly helpful. After reading all of these posts and thinking about it further, I think that we will keep our wall timeline from HO, but (1) do the once-a-week posting others have mentioned; and (2) put less on there. I realized that in retrospect I should not have bought the accompanying sticker package, because just having those stickers on the shelf makes me feel compelled to paste them to the timeline, whether they mean anything much to DS7 or not. Which is obviously absurd.

 

So I am going to go back and clean up some of the over-stickered (not to mention smeared-by-wet-toddler-fingers) ancients timeline and then we will proceed in a more organic fashion. This past week we did a FIAR unit involving Russia and so yesterday I had him make stickers out of labels for the Russian Revolution and Tchaikovsky. It made much more sense.

 

I also very much like the idea of starting a timeline notebook when we are in logic stage. I am filing that idea away for the future.

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I realized that in retrospect I should not have bought the accompanying sticker package, because just having those stickers on the shelf makes me feel compelled to paste them to the timeline, whether they mean anything much to DS7 or not. Which is obviously absurd.

 

Absolutely! I had the same problem, initially. I have the gorgeous HITW full sets, and downloaded the info about how to beautifully color them in. Yeah...not meaningful or memorable AT ALL for young children! Not like picking a single favorite event or figure for the week, drawing their own pic and doing a bit of well-chosen copywork below.

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