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Timeline Teaching Mini-Workshop

The following is an "online" mini workshop of the talk I give at homeschool conventions around the country.  Since you and I can't chat in person, I think you'll find the information contained here to be valuable and informative as you're deciding whether timelines are a tool that will benefit your kids and their education.

Timelines are great tools for teaching. They are as much of a tool for YOU as for your kids. Seven GREAT reasons to use a timeline and our Historical Figures.

  1. They help you keep track of what you've taught.

    1. I strongly recommend you write the date and child's name on the back of all the figures you're covered before hanging them on your line. (For states that require record keeping, this is an easy way to do it.)
    2. At a glance you are easily able to see gaps in learning. Nothing on your line in the 1600's?…this is a teaching gap.

  2. Timelines are a visual comfort and peace of mind to you and your kids that everyone is actually learning something.

    1. This is especially true if you're new at homeschooling and still worried about doing it "correctly".
    2. Also very helpful if you've pulled kids out of public schools and the kids question if they are learning as much as their p.s. friends. The friends will come over and stand and gawk at your line with all the figures on it and say, "who's that?" and "I never heard of him before". This is a great boost for your children!
    3. Visual comfort to reluctant spouses and in-laws who aren't quite convinced you are smart enough to teach their grandchildren!

  3. Takes the confusion out of history. History and the concept of time are abstract ideas. It's difficult for our minds to grasp the concept of space and happenings. Add to the happenings, the idea that each culture had events going on simultaneously, and this makes for incredible confusion and vagueness. If WE struggle with this…imagine our kids!

    1. Our history figures act as pieces to a huge jigsaw puzzle. By placing them on our line, the puzzle is slowly and visually put together.
    2. By using a timeline as the framework on which to hang history, you are easily able to teach WITHOUT HAVING TO GO IN ORDER. (I strongly disagree with those who claim that teaching history in chronological order is best. This is not common sense to life and the ages of your children. If Joey begs to know about the "Pilgrims" at age 7, it is foolish to say, "oh, no honey, we don't cover them until the 6th grade." How silly! We are to take all the teaching opportunities that come along, when they come. A timeline lets you (and your kids) be in charge of when to teach what. History happened in order, but it does not have to be taught in order!
    3. The strongly visual "picture" that you are creating as you place figures on your line, helps give understanding and clarity as your kids SEE how events, people and happenings occurred and overlapped.

  4. You can use our FIGURES and a timeline with ANY curriculum or use our FIGURES as a curriculum of its own.

    1. If you are a "text-booker", look in the index of your current history book and mark all the people and events you have the figures for; after you've read about them, put them on your line. (You'll probably cover between 150 - 200 per year…if you own all of our figures.)
    2. Use our Figures as the curriculum - my preferred suggestion.
      1. Decide who or what you want to cover for your school year; you can use a "scope and sequence", or reading lists (Sonlight etc.), a certain period of history (middle ages), or use our Index of Figures available. THEN GO TO THE LIBRARY! There are wonderful books to cover just about everything. Your kids will absorb and understand and REMEMBER much more through a story they've read than through reading a textbook…in my opinion.
      2. A very inexpensive way to school your family.
      3. This method makes for an easy way to teach multiple ages of kids. The 1st grader you read a story to and have him tell you what he learned. Your 4th grader reads and finds info from 3 different sources and writes one page on what he learned. Your 7th grader uses five sources and writes 2 pages. Everyone is covering and learning about the same person, yet each is learning according to their own age and abilities. You, Mom, are not juggling different agendas and curricula for each child.
      4. By adding additional projects (make the Mayflower using Popsicle sticks), fieldtrips, renting videos etc. you'll be teaching in a manner that is well rounded, fun and easy.

        When my girls were reading about Helen Keller, we rented the videos about her (it seems like there were three). We also decided to see what it would be like to be blind, so after inviting a friend to go along with them, we went to lunch (at a restaurant) blindfolded. What fun it was for them! Our waitress gave them Braille menus to choose from - of course they could only feel them, and then each ordered a cheeseburger and fries. She brought the food out and told the girls that "your burger is at 6:00 o'clock, your fries at 10, and your soda is at 2:00." They made a mess and had a ball. After lunch was over (about 10 people came up to us and asked us what we were doing…everyone was amazed and thought it was such a great idea and a fun way to learn), I asked the girls to tell me what they learned from their experience. My oldest, who at that time was 13, said, "It was really crummy not knowing when you were going to run out of food so that you would know when you should be full." I thought that was an incredibly profound and insightful observation!

        After lunch we walked around the mall area for a bit, the girls are still blindfolded (they each at yardsticks for canes!). A woman from church was there, she came up to us and it was interesting that only 2 of the three girls were easily able to identify her by listening to her voice, my other daughter being HIGHLY visual in learning found voice only to be a struggle.

        We found this luncheon experience to be one of the memorable highlights of our homeschooling years. I encourage you to think of fun little jaunts and journeys you can do with your kids.

  5. Timeline teaching is an easy way to incorporate several subjects through the use of one Figure.

    • History is covered due to the use of the line
    • Reading and aspects of "Language Arts" is covered through your child's reading of their library books
    • Writing by having them write a page or so about their Figure
    • Place your Figures on a map to let your children see that events happen historically and also geographically. Geography
    • Fine Arts (music, poetry, art etc.) will be covered by listening to the music of your composer, or studying the works of a certain artist etc.
    • Doing an experiment that relates to a specific invention or scientist that you are reading about can cover Science.
    • Math - it would be a stretch.

  6. Timelines can be a natural easy reinforcement and review of what they have learned. I recommend taking your timeline down every spring (even if you teach year-round, take it down for a few months every summer). Kids will start to see through it if it's up all the time…and you will enjoy having your living room (or wherever) back again for a while.

    1. Put all the figures that were on your line in a container and enjoy some peace and quiet!
    2. In the fall, when everyone is excited for school to begin again, get out your line and put it back up.
    3. Get out the container of Figures, and let your kids put them back on the line after they have BRIEFLY told you something about the person or event. I.e. Pony Express; "Oh, this was when they delivered the mail by riding horses." Your kids will be excited by all the things they know and at all the figures that get to go back up on your line again (remember that their names and grade are on the backs of the figures).
    4. Fun encouragement for the upcoming year and a boost in starting things off with a bit of review and seeing all the things you've already learned about.

  7. Timelines incorporate well with children of any type of learning style. Highly visual; review and conversation for the auditory learner; hands-on coloring, cutting and handling for the kinesthetic child.
Well, this is the mini version of the workshop I do at the homeschool shows I attend. I would also show you our product, tell you to make copies as needed and where to get things laminated cheaply. We'd talk about other timeline options if you didn't have space on your wall for my big line. If we were in the real workshop, you'd be able to ask questions and get some of my thoughts and ideas. Our "on-line" workshop can handle this also…just e-mail me: Hearts4Home@verizon.net. I check every day or so, I'd be happy to help if you have any further questions or concerns.

Blessings and grace to you as you teach your children.
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