Jump to content

Menu

Timeline with SOTW


Earthmerlin
 Share

Recommended Posts

I'm sorry if this is covered in SOTW or WTM but I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for timelines when reading SOTW--the logistics of it as well as its storage. I plan to start volume 1 soon and figure a homemade timeline will provide a helpful visual for my visual learner. Do most families have their kids maintain a history notebook with narrations, maps and whatnot as they go through the volumes? I after-school so a) apologize if this seems an obvious question and b) need to modify things to accomodate a more restricted schedule.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, the timeline question stems (in part) from a kid's hazy feel for history. I have an 8 year old who knows about Attila and Napoleon, let's say. However, when asked she wouldn't necessarily be able to say who lived first, let alone when. Is this typical? I figure a timeline would help remedy such things but am I over-thinking things at this stage?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We don't do a timeline until the second time through, just to minimize what is done for history.  First rotation is when we concentrate on cultures, projects, maps, language, and beginning narration.  The maps, paper projects, and narrations are compiled in a notebook.

 

However, when we do introduce timelines we like Pandia Press.  They fold up accordion-style and have sticker packages available to make it look clean.  The bands across separate people from wars, scientific achievements and the like. http://www.pandiapress.com/publications/timeline/

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We made our own with continuous print paper (you know, the stuff from the 90s).

 

I bought History Through the Ages time line figures, and I go through pulling the appropriate figures for each chapter.

 

I created a Word Doc with the figures for each book, and then printed on full sheet label paper. Essentially, I made stickers, lol.

 

I colored them myself and we add them to the timeline as we go.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We start timelines the second time through. We do it on roll paper as TWTM describes. Kids write in entries and add drawings, photos etc. Simple, oldschool, inexpensive, effective.

 

We pick 5 or 6 dates from each timeline for kids to memorize. It's enough.

 

We don't keep them, but I do take photos before we put a new one up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, thanks! I like both the homemade & commercial ideas put forth. At age 8 this will be her 1st go around for SOTW, although we have 'studied' history in an organic way until this point. So, this will be her first foray into a chronological study of history. A timeline may help keep things organized.

 

Addressing my previous post, can your 8 year olds place historical figures appropriately in general time? I'm just trying to gauge things here, that's all. Hmmm....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, my dc can not place historical figures accurately without some clues from me that are related to other things they have studied recently. I think this is super typical.

 

We did a homemade timeline for each book with homemade cards. It sounds like you might want to consider a timeline like a clothesline with colorful pictures, or something of that I'll that you could leave out for a while for casual viewing and discussion.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, my dc can not place historical figures accurately without some clues from me that are related to other things they have studied recently. I think this is super typical.

 

We did a homemade timeline for each book with homemade cards. It sounds like you might want to consider a timeline like a clothesline with colorful pictures, or something of that I'll that you could leave out for a while for casual viewing and discussion.

O, an excellent idea--a moveable 3-D timeline! I'm digging this clothesline timeline idea!!!😃 You made my day!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have a loooooong time line (50 feet) that stretches around our entry way and hallway.  It is up high, because at this stage it is for looking, not touching.  Currently I have 77 cards (with pictures and short text blurbs) posted on the time line that correspond to events and people that we have read about in history.  I also have duplicates of the cards that we play with.  I might hand each of the boys a card and have them stand under that event on the time line.  Or I might give the older boys a half dozen cards and challenge them to put them in the correct order (referring to the time line) before the egg timer runs out.

 

At this stage (my kids are 2, 4, 6, and 8), I view history and the time line as just exposure.  I don't expect my kids to really remember dates or details - I just want them to start hearing the names/vocab/stories.  All I really want them to get out of the time line is the general idea that people and events lived and happened at a particular time in history.  Just because King Narmer united Upper and Lower Egypt in the past, and Rome fell to the Visigoths in the past, does not mean that those two things happened in even remotely the same time frame.  For now, I don't even really care if they remember which one came first, as long as they understand that different things happened at different times.

 

I'm planning to leave our long time line up for many years to come.  When my oldest starts the logic stage, though, he will start making his own book time line as he goes through his second history cycle.

 

Wendy

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We don't do timelines till 4-5 grades and up. In all honesty, my kids remember where the big things fall in relation to other pieces of the story. Nobody here is confusing the Black Death and Ancient Greece because they are in two different sections/time periods. Some of our projects are memorable and they hang the reference from those too.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I printed timeline pages on cardstock from the beginning of SOTW-ish to present. Got a big binder and put all the pages into clear page covers. We pull them out and add stuff a lot. Books we read, events we learn about, etc. As we add, I'm seeing the girls (8+10) get a feel for time periods of history and the relationship of events. My plan is to continue with this one big binder until they are older and then have them make individual timeline books on a later history cycle.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have a loooooong time line (50 feet) that stretches around our entry way and hallway. It is up high, because at this stage it is for looking, not touching. Currently I have 77 cards (with pictures and short text blurbs) posted on the time line that correspond to events and people that we have read about in history. I also have duplicates of the cards that we play with. I might hand each of the boys a card and have them stand under that event on the time line. Or I might give the older boys a half dozen cards and challenge them to put them in the correct order (referring to the time line) before the egg timer runs out.

 

At this stage (my kids are 2, 4, 6, and 8), I view history and the time line as just exposure. I don't expect my kids to really remember dates or details - I just want them to start hearing the names/vocab/stories. All I really want them to get out of the time line is the general idea that people and events lived and happened at a particular time in history. Just because King Narmer united Upper and Lower Egypt in the past, and Rome fell to the Visigoths in the past, does not mean that those two things happened in even remotely the same time frame. For now, I don't even really care if they remember which one came first, as long as they understand that different things happened at different times.

 

I'm planning to leave our long time line up for many years to come. When my oldest starts the logic stage, though, he will start making his own book time line as he goes through his second history cycle.

 

Wendy

Brilliant!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found some free printable cards online and printed them on card stock. I cut them out at the beginning of each year, and we add them to the wall timeline as we go (leaving all 4 Pandia timelines up).

 

The first two years, I found it easier to find resources, but for SOTW 3 and 4, I made my own.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...