Timelines and Little Ones

I am so happy to introduce you to Megan, she blogs at Contented Sparrow, and loves to homeschool her little ones under His sun, abiding under His wings and enjoying His beautiful creation. Today she is sharing with us about Timelines and little ones; grab a cup of tea (or coffee) and enjoy!

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My second-born asked one time, “Mom, was Grandma alive at the same time as Laura and Mary (Ingalls, of course)?”

That right there confirmed what I had heard about young kids having a hard time grasping history….the order of events, times and places and how they all fit together.  Of course, as a homeschooling mom, I had already been reading about the value of using a timeline….

From Homeschool in the Woods

“With eras of “time” being such an abstract concept, a child can have difficulties wrapping his young mind around the idea of it! (Adults, too!) Quite often the student will become frustrated and bored, resulting in a deflated desire to understand the subject at all.

Understanding when and where events took place, however, is crucial to understanding the patterns that evolved throughout history! It also illustrates God’s hand in all things from civilizations to sciences, something unfortunately left out in public school educations today.

The key factor lacking in teaching the subject of history was transforming it from an abstract concept to a concrete framework, visible and even tangible! Practically all people, young or old, rely on visualizing in order to learn. A child will see patterns happening and will make sense of how one event leads to another or a person’s importance affecting a turn of events. Once you add in a hands-on element, you create an environment where the child has additional exposure to the lesson, building memories relating to the project that will further cement the lesson in his mind.”

So, after I told myself, “Yes!”, to the timeline idea, my next question was inevitably how to do it?  Do we use a timeline in a big long book?  Or one that the kids notebook themselves?  Or sticky notes on the wall? I ruled out the timeline-in-a-book idea right away because I was sure it would end up neglected.  I decided it would be valuable to have it out in front of us all the time so I could answer children’s questions by pointing to the wall…i.e. “No, Oliver, Grandma was not alive the same time as Laura, see?”

Thankfully around this same time, a good (homeschooling) friend of mine had a timeline painted in her schooling room…all around the top of the walls.  Because we have a dedicated homeschooling room in our home, I was excited with the thought of how great that would be for us, as well.

Being a DIY kind of girl, I painted the line, did some complicated (for me!) math figuring to equally space out the centuries, and stenciled them onto the line. (Which, I have to say, took some patience.)

Then I had a talented girl (who had done my friend’s timeline) come and paint key Biblical events onto the timeline.  Starting with this, of course….

Then, an ark for the Flood, a ram and altar for Abraham and Isaac….

tablets for Moses and the Ten Commandments….

a crown, sheep and shepherd’s staff for King David….

and a lion to remind of us Daniel (and the Lion of Judah!).

Lastly and most important, where all of civilization hangs their hope, the great divide between BC and AD, a painting to remind us of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. All of time is divided into before our Saviour left His Heavenly dwelling to rescue us and after His work was done and He ascended back there to create a Home for us. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve pointed up to that “0″ in relation to history…..the home-base for everything. It really is HIS-story of redemption

I also had Psalm 25:4-5 painted onto one long wall.

The kids (and I) are amazed sometimes to realize what Biblical events were happening at the same time as “worldly” ones…as in, “The Ancient Greek Olympics and Jonah?!?!”

For History, we’ve taken a break from the chronological course of things this year to concentrate on American History. We’ve loosely used WinterPromise’s friendly curriculum to guide us along from Viking discoveries through to Lewis and Clark where we are right now. My children are two boys and a girl, ages 8, almost 7, and almost 4. So, we take a somewhat casual approach. I read books aloud to them, they do something hands-on like paper models, 3-D maps. And whenever we learn about something in the Bible or in our history reading, I scour the internet for a lovely image to print off and tape up under the respective year on the timeline. And whenever we come across dates in our reading, I stop and have the children point it out on the timeline for me so they can visually relate the event to others.

I have to say that almost anything could be taped up there to enhance understanding of time and events. Little copies of covers from favorite books you’ve read under the year they took place. Or a print out of a piece of artwork under the year it was painted. There are endless brilliant ideas!

Here are some links I’ve enjoyed related to timelines:

Jimmie Homeschool Mom’s excellent lens….tons of info and linkage here!
Heather Sanders for Pioneer Woman…timeline in a notebook
Paula’s Archives on timelines…lots of links
Higher Up and Further In’s notecard timeline on a string

Thanks to Becky for inviting me to share!
May God richly bless the education of your children and cause the seeds you have planted to grow.
Megan