Book of Centuries

Ever try to post a timeline on your living room wall? It seems like those strips of paper soon spill over onto the hallway wall, and the kitchen, then the dining room, and before you know it, they’re creeping toward the stairway to the bedrooms. Charlotte Mason had a great idea when she used a Book of Centuries with her students.

A Book of Centuries is like a timeline in a notebook. As its name suggests, each two-page spread in the book is devoted to one hundred years — a century — of history. Each student creates his or her own book, recording historical events and names of importance, along with pictures, poems, quotes, and anything else that makes the book individual. You can also add written narrations, illustrations from the Internet, or titles of books you’ve read that are set in that time period.

Books of Centuries can be as simple or elaborate as you desire. We’ve just added a simple version to the CM Time Savers. It’s a document that labels each two-page spread with a date (in hundred-year increments) from 4000 B.C. to A.D. 2099. If you download the document, you can use it to create your own Book of Centuries.

Then store it on a shelf and go reclaim your wall space!