Question: I am confused about timelines

[babybryte]

Hello! I have a question...I am restarting Bigger next week. I have seen the timeline suggested for Bigger. I have also seen the timeline for Preparing. I don't know if the other books have different timelines or not.

My question is this: why are there different timelines for each book? I know a lot of curricums start one when the child is young and just keep adding to it throughout the years. I am just a little confused as to why a new one is started each year, instead of just adding on to one each year.

I am not trying to bash this method at all....I am genuinely interested in learning why it's done this way and if it works better than one big timeline. And if I am wrong on my perceptions of how the timelines are done, please forgive me.

[MomtoJGJE]

I might be wrong about this, but each year doesn't build chronologically on the previous one necessarily. Like this year in Beyond we are doing early American history, but it's from 1565 to 1860... Next year is US history from 15?? until 1970 or so... In Preparing it goes back to a one year overview of world history, and then you get into Creation to Christ.

So you do a different timeline each year so that you can see how it all comes together each year... it helps solidify the concepts when the child sees it written down.

[Carrie]

Jacquelyn,

We begin with Charlotte Mason's suggestion for a column timeline in Beyond and Bigger because kiddos don't really have a good grasp of the flow of history at that age and seeing events in 50-100 year columns on a single or a double page really helps them get a better feel for the flow of time. After that, we move into our one year overview of world history with Preparing Hearts and step the timeline up a level to either a wall timeline or an accordian-folded timeline. This also is designed to give a feel for the major events in the flow of history, providing mental pegs for children to hang their history readings upon in the future.

Once we move to CTC, we begin a chronological flow to history using a 4 year cycle. At that point we do begin a continuous timeline, which will be added to each year. However, we do not do it in isolation but rather within a beautiful full-color Student Notebook that provides a deeper look at those timeline entries by providing places for written narrations, copywork, sketches, common place book entries, project work, and maps (in addition to the timeline). This makes for many connections among the history-related work and keeps the timeline book from being a separate book unrelated to the rest of the children's work. The student will add a new section to the Student Notebook each year (through each guide) until there is one large volume completed over 4 years.

On a sidenote, we did have our oldest son keep a separate timeline book for his beginning 5 years of schooling with cut and paste figures, but we have since found much greater retention and connectiveness when we switched to the method we're using now (both with our oldest son and our upcoming kiddos). Drawing and labeling the figures really helps cement the people and events in the kiddos' minds. It forces them to interact with the material more and makes it personal (and also very engaging to look at)! My boys are much more invested in their timelines now, then they ever were when someone else had done the drawing and labeling for them. It means more to them because of the work it has taken to produce.

Blessings,
Carrie

[babybryte]

Thank you SO much, Carrie!! That makes a lot of sense. I figured there was a reason for it, but I just didn't know what it was. And I didn't know how the CTC timeline worked. Thanks for taking the time to explain it!!