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April 19, 2006 - by Terri Johnson,
author
of Homeschooling ABCs (www.homeschoolingabcs.com
) -
dedicated to helping new homeschoolers gain the
confidence and the necessary skills to successfully teach
their children at home.
How to Make a Timeline Easily
I receive many questions from new and veteran home educators
over the course of a year. In the past two months, however,
there has been one question that has surfaced more than any
other and that is… “How do we make a timeline?” This is a great
question and armed with knowledge and the right tools, it is
not as hard as it might seem.
Once you have decided that your students would gain tremendous
benefit from seeing the progression of history in the form of a
timeline, the first obstacle that crops up is, “How do we
start?” Some of the questions that arise when constructing a
timeline are from not knowing what the date increments should
be, how far apart they should be spaced, what format should be
used and what exactly should go on it.
FORMAT
We will tackle each one of these questions, but let’s start
with the third one about format. A timeline can be constructed
in a variety of formats, but there are three major categories –
wall timeline, book timeline and computer timeline. Each one is
fairly self-explanatory, but for the sake of clarity, let’s
define each one. A wall timeline would be attached to or hung
upon the wall. When no longer in use, it may be taken down and
stored by folding like an accordion or rolling it up. A wall
timeline can either be a finished product for reference
purposes only, a pre-printed banner with date increments only,
or entirely homemade. As interesting as a reference timeline
can be for adults, it is not the educational tool that the
latter two options provide.
A book timeline as well can be a finished product, such as the
Wall Chart of World History. This is a fabulous book and a
great reference for adults or teens. Again, it is not the ideal
educational tool for students in 4th through 12th grade,
because students in this age bracket need a tangible activity
to cement their learning. (As an aside, timelines do not have
significant meaning for students 3rd grade and under. At this
age, they are still grasping the concept of time.) The other
options for book timelines would be a pre-printed hardcover
book with date increments only, a binder with printed timeline
sheets, or a homemade timeline book assembled in a notebook,
scrapbook or sketch book.
A computer timeline requires software, which can be anything
from the most basic of applications such as Microsoft Word or
Excel (or similar word processing and spreadsheet applications)
to a program that has been developed specifically for the
purpose of creating historical timelines on the computer. Two
such programs are the Easy Timeline Creator and TimeLiner 5.0.
Both of these programs have been developed for students to make
timeline creation at the computer desktop a snap.
SPACING
Once a format has been decided upon, the time period and date
increments need to be mapped out. Decide if your timeline will
cover the span of recorded history (generally from early
civilizations around 5000BC to the present) or just a segment
of history (for example: World War II – 1939-1945). This next
part is subjective, but you will need to decide how much space
you would like to allot to your timeline. You may be limited by
wall space and this factor might play into your decision about
which format to use as well. If you are working with a book
format or on the computer, space is not particularly an issue.
One rule of thumb, however, is to give yourself more space the
more recent the history being studied. For example, a page per
one or two hundred years is sufficient for Ancient history, (in
fact using this amount will result in many blank pages towards
the beginning) but you will need at least a page per decade for
the 20th century. Perhaps even more.
Below are some guidelines to get started. As much as possible,
determine to keep date increment spacing consistent on your
planned timeline project. If you are using a wall timeline,
consider choosing a time period rather than the whole span of
recorded history. You can change out timelines when you have
filled up the first one. This is not a bad idea for your book
or computer timeline either, as it breaks the project down into
a manageable sized chunk. This can be a very helpful plan for
children, especially those that are easily overwhelmed by large
projects.
For the wall:
|
Time
Period
|
Date
Increments
|
Space
Needed
|
|
Ancient
History
|
allow 3-6 inches
of space per 100 years
|
This will be over
10 feet of timeline if you cover as much as
5000BC – 400AD
|
|
Medieval
History
|
allow 10 – 12
inches of space per 100 years
|
This will result
in 10 -12 ft. of timeline if you cover as much
as 400AD – 1600AD
|
|
Renaissance or
New World History
|
allow 12 inches
of space per 25 years
|
This will result
in 10 feet of timeline if you cover as much as
1600 – 1850
|
|
Modern
History
|
allow at least 8
inches of space per decade
|
This will result
in 10 feet of timeline is you cover as much
time as 1850 – 2000
|
Note: Before you begin to mark the date increments on your
homemade wall timeline, draw a straight line horizontally along
its length. Use butcher paper, computer printout paper or the
unprinted ends of a newspaper roll (ask for this at your local
paper – it is either free or cheap). Also note that Knowledge
Quest sells wall timelines with the date increments pre-marked.
Click here for
details.
For a book:
|
Time
Period
|
Date
Increments
|
Space
Needed
|
|
Ancient
History
|
allow a page for
every 100 – 200 year span
|
With 100 years
per page, your book will number at least 54
pages if you cover 5000BC – 400AD
|
|
Medieval
History
|
allow a page for
every 50 – 100 years
|
50 years per page
will result in 24 pages if you cover as much as
400AD – 1600AD
|
|
Renaissance or
New World History
|
allow a page for
every 10 – 25 years
|
25 years per page
will result in 10 pages and 10 years per page
will result in 25 pages if you cover as much as
1600 – 1850
|
|
Modern
History
|
allow a page for
every 5 – 10 years
|
10 years per page
will result in 15 pages and 5 years per page
will result in 30 pages if you cover as much as
1850 – 2000
|
Note: Before you begin to mark the date increments in your
homemade timeline book, draw a straight line horizontally along
the mid to upper portion of each page. Use notebook paper,
scrapbook papers or an artist’s sketchpad Also note that
Knowledge Quest sells a blank timeline book entitled Wonders of
Old which has the date increments pre-marked. Hardcover book or
CD-ROM available. Click here for
details.
One final idea for your book timeline is to insert blank half
pages between the full pages that you have created above to
allow for expansion if your student runs out of room on the
pages provided. The concept of the half pages is that the page
would sit below the running line on the full pages giving the
page its date increments.
For the computer:
The beauty of a computer generated timeline is that it only
uses the space that it needs. It can expand to include as many
details as your student would like to include on it and there
are no empty holes where information has been left out. This
writer is greatly impressed with the software program Easy
Timeline Creator. It is flexible and user-friendly and great
for the student who would prefer to build his timeline from the
computer. Click here for
more details.
CONTENTS
The final and perhaps most important question is… What should
go on our timeline? The short answer… anything that your
student is currently studying that falls within the time period
that she is charting. This can be historical events, political
figures, artists and musicians, discoveries, inventions,
scientists, religious figures and events, literature, great
writers, etc. Anything that is worthy of studying is worth
recording on the timeline as the timeline gives the snapshot
perspective of when things happened and in what order. A
related question that pops up is where on the timeline should
people be recorded – at their birth, or date of significant
achievement? There is no right answer. And a good argument can
be made for either alternative or for recording both.
Information can be recorded on timelines by writing events down
by hand, drawing pictures, sticking stickers, or gluing on
pictures or pre-drawn timeline figures. Again there is no right
answer, only personal preference. The greater learning
experience would come from drawing pictures and writing
captions down by hand. Of course, if this causes frustration
and resistance to the project by your students then we have
defeated the point. Furthermore, if we as the parents cannot
bear the scribble displayed on our walls and will only consent
to a wall timeline if it is meticulously done, then prepared
timeline figures may be the way to go.
Pictures for your timeline can come from magazine clippings,
Google images, clip-art books and CDs. There are companies that
have produced historical timeline figures so that you can have
everything you need stored in one place for easy retrieval. I
am very impressed with the timeline figures drawn by Amy Pak
entitled History Through the Ages. She has hand-drawn over
1,620 figures that include captions, ready to cut and paste
onto your timeline. Sets are provided for ancient,
medieval/renaissance and modern history. They are available as
hardcopy sets or on CD-ROM. For more information on timeline
figures from History through the Ages, click here for details.
A note on applying pictures or figures onto your timeline: a
glue stick is a much better applicator than regular Elmer’s
glue. Glue dots work as well, but the edges do not get sealed
down very well, leaving the possibility that the figures might
get knocked off inadvertently.
Hopefully, the information provided here will arm you with the
knowledge and motivation that you need to get started on that
timeline project that you have been meaning to get to. Making a
timeline with children can be a fun and rewarding experience. A
great learning opportunity as well. If you still have questions
about how to tackle this task, or feel as though I missed an
important aspect of timeline construction, send me an email. I
would love to hear from you.
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