# Sonlight's Timeline--



## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

OK, so I recently was scanning some SonLight material and saw their Timeline book. What a cool idea! 
For those that don't know, it looks like a standard book, except that it starts at a certain year, a few years on that page, you flip the page, more years, etc. Ie, the blank timeline flows though the middle of the book's pages. 

I didn't know I thought so much of it, until long after I put it down. That is, I didn't take notes! 

However, I've since decided I _love_ the concept of putting people you've studied, books, events, etc. along a time line in a nice, spacious book to keep things in a logical chronology for my kids.
And, it would be easy enough to make such a thing and just keep it in a standard three ring notebook.


My question for you all: 
How would _you_ go about setting it up? What type of (years) spacing would you choose and why?


----------



## Cheryl in SD (Apr 22, 2005)

It rather depends on when you want to start. If you start 4000 year B.C., then going by 200-500 time periods might be good. If you start Millions of years ago, then not so good. 

You gave me an idea though. What if you put a few dates you want to mark (for us it might be Creation, Flood, Birth of Christ, America found), the as you study something, make a page or figure and add to the 3 ring binder in order between those marker dates. Over time the binder would fill in chronologically.


----------



## BusyBees2 (Dec 10, 2004)

Thinking on Cheryl's idea: What if you were to create a 'page' (I'm thinking cardstock maybe) with a bold line across the middle on the front & back & hole punched. You could make each page whatever time duration you wanted. 

If you were studying dinosaurs, you might mark the top of the page in 'X millions of years ago' and mark one thing on the line. But if you were studying Am. History, you might mark one page 'the 1600s' and have a whole bunch of things written on that page's line. If you needed more space you could continue on the next page with the same title. The time scale wouldn't have to be the same for each page, and you can add new pages anywhere in the book as you study them. 

I think it's a great idea! What age group would you be doing this with?


----------



## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Thanks girls! This is just what I'm after. 



> add to the 3 ring binder in order between those marker dates.


I'm liking _this_. :goodjob: ...Take advantage of the non-permanence of a 3ring so I can adjust as needed.



> The time scale wouldn't have to be the same for each page,


That's probably the way we'll go no matter what. (The 1800s, for example will be pretty full. The 200s, not so full...) 
But what we might be able to do with the big ranges is to do something like a small "prehistory" notebook, divided into the common eras and periods (Jurassic, Pleistocene, etc.)


----------



## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

There is a fantastic book called The Timetables of History that does this. It's in a spreadsheet format, and gave me the idea of doing our timeline in a similar fashion -- we are Classical home educators, and timelines are a big part of our history study.

I just had my boys set up similar spreadsheets on the computer, following the format in the book. They print it off at the end of each year and it goes in their study binders.


----------



## hsmom2four (Oct 13, 2008)

You also might want to check out www.homeschoolinthewoods.com 

She has a fabulous timeline that you can get on CD and print yourself. Her timeline figures are superb (she created the ones for Sonlight as well). She also gives a placement guide for her figures and timeline so you can get the most out of it. I also prefer to have the pages printed with the back blank which creates a space for notebooking pages to be placed that were appropriate for the time period. 



HTH, 
Cheryl


----------

