Our Timeline

On the Sonlight Forums, I was trying to tell someone about our timeline, but I couldn’t shrink the pictures.  I’m going to put a description with pictures here so people can link here and see what I’m talking about, OK?

We made a once-for-all-time timeline! What I mean is that once we made it, all we need to do is add names and dates to it. Ours is actually three different timelines - bear with me, I think it will make sense when I'm done. We did them with butcher paper and put them on the wall above some bookshelves. We have to stand on a chair to get to them, but you could use a bare spot of wall, we just didn't have a bare spot anywhere in the house!! The top line is black and goes from 4,000 B.C (with space before that for undateable events) to the present and is marked off into 1000 year increments. The second line is green and goes from 800 to the present and marked off into 100 year increments. The bottom line is blue and goes from 1820 to 2020 (we're optimistic) and marked off into 20 year increments.

 

On the top line, the section from 800 to the present is also marked in blue to show that it corresponds to the second line and the section from 1820 to the present is also marked in green to show that it corresponds to the bottom line.

 

Each item is added to the timeline on the bottommost line where it fits - so, something from 1950 would get put on the bottom line. Something from 1200 would get put on the middle line.
We did it this way because we wanted plenty of room in modern times for modern events, but didn't want lots of wasted space. From 1700 to the present, there are lots of important events to add, but it's a bit sparse in the 4000 B.C. to 2000 B.C. We were concerned that our kids wouldn't quite understand the concept of the three lines, but my son was 6 or 7 when we did it, and he seems to be just fine with it.

I put off this project for about six months.  When I finally pulled out the butcher paper and markers, it took me less than an hour to do the whole thing.  We even moved it from our previous home to here without much trouble.  As you can see, the ancient history stuff is more filled in than anything else.  I’m going to use some time this summer to review Medieval History and fill in the middle line.  Most of the bottom line will get filled in over the next few years during American and 20th Century history.

Hope you enjoyed that little tour of our timeline and that you are inspired to make your own!!