"History of the World" Timeline Notebook Study ~ Part 1

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

~ Genesis 1:1

One of the most appealing concepts (for myself at least) regarding home education, was the idea that we could teach our children world history in the order in which it actually occurred. It sounds very obvious, yet how many of us who have gone through the public school system can boast the know-how of thinking chronologically? Was Cleopatra alive prior to or before the birth of Christ (Answer: A short while before)? What was going on when Jane Austen was growing up in the English countryside (Answer: French Revolution)? To have your children understand the links of time and literally "show" them how everything unfolded since the beginning of creation appeared genius!

Main Tool to Implement Teaching History in Chronological Order?

The simple tool that pulls this study together is a history timeline. This is where you would record all your historical dates along with some brief information (as you learn about specific events in time). You are also encouraged to paste an appropriate illustration, clip art and/or timeline figure above your informational entries which provides an excellent visual aid for children. You can do your timeline on old computer-paper around the walls of your schoolroom for a daily display of your work or corral all information inside a timeline notebook. There is a *free* printable Book of the Centuries Timeline Notebook (found here) that we utilized with thankfulness! You can print one off per child or do a family timeline notebook together with mother navigating the project for younger children. Be creative and work with the needs and likes of your home! Victorian educator, Charlotte Mason, along with our modern day scholar, Ruth Beechick, confirm this approach to education…

"In order to give definiteness to what may soon become a pretty wide knowledge of history––mount a sheet of cartridge-paper and divide it into twenty columns, letting the first century of the Christian era come in the middle, and let each remaining column represent a century B.C. or A.D., as the case may be. Then let the child himself write, or print, as he is able, the names of the people he comes upon in due order, in their proper century. We need not trouble ourselves at present with more exact dates, but this simple table of the centuries will suggest a graphic panorama to the child's mind, and he will see events in their time-order."

~ Charlotte Mason

(Note: This is what the notebook printable, Book of the Centuries has already done for you.)

"For children, timelines are not for pulling together the scattered pieces of knowledge, as they do so well with adults; children haven't yet collected enough pieces to pull together. What timelines do for children is to provide a framework into which they can put pieces of knowledge as they learn them. For this framework purpose, timelines should be very simple-- so simple that children can memorize them."

~ Ruth Beechick, You Can Teach Your Child Successfully

Does this concept of teaching world history interest you?

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 1 (Introduction)

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 2 (Recommended Ages and Such)

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 3 (How to Conduct One)

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 4 (Practical Ideas)

History of the World Notebook Study/Part 5 (Preparation and Binder Printable)
Creation Study ~ History of the World (Study 1)
Noah's Ark & The World Wide Flood ~ History of the World (Study 2)

"These things children must have; but they come into the world with many relations waiting to be established; relations with places far and near, with the wide universe, with the past of history, with the the social economics of the present, with the earth they live on and all its delightful progeny of beast and bird, plant and tree; with the sweet human affinities they entered into at birth; with their own country and other countries, and, above all, with that most sublime of human relationships––their relation to God." 

~ Charlotte Mason