Book of Centuries – Dates

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  • live2inspire
    Participant

    I’m excited!…..we’re going to start our family wall timeline (actually, foamboard – no wall space in our small house), and my oldest DD (5th grade) will be starting her Book of Centuries once we begin our Ancient studies this late summer/early fall. I have read some old posts (VERY helpful-thanks!) but have two questions yet that I’m sure someone can help with. 😀

    1) On one website I saw how the date increments changed as time passed. For example Ancient history notebook pages cover 100 years, Medieval pages cover 50 years, Renaissance 25, and Modern 10 years. This really makes sense, considering how the further into time we go, the more there is to add during the later time periods. For those of you who have a BOC, do you do this?…wish you did this?

    2) The dates: I see different start dates (5000 B.C, 4000, Creation with 3000 B.C. following). How did you come up with YOUR start date. I’ve decided to begin with one page for Creation, one for the Fall, one for the Flood, and one for the Tower of Babel (“pre-history”) – and them beginning with 3000 B.C., but I am curious what others are doing and what entries are included in the years before 3000 B.C. (I’m not real strong in history, so it would be helpful to hear what/why others do.)

    In Christ,

    Rebecca 😀

    live2inspire
    Participant

    Hello Sonya,

    I was secretly hoping to be blessed with your input on this.

    (pretty please? 😀 😀 😀 )

    I truly understand you’re extremely busy so if you can’t get back to me, that’s quite alright. 🙂

    In Christ,

    Rebecca

    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    Hi, Rebecca! Thanks for the bump. 🙂 I’m here in Iowa between conference days, and my brain is a bit mushy but I’ll give it my best shot. 😀

    1) I like to keep the Book of Centuries just that: centuries. Yes, more happens as you get to the more recent years, but having that space limitation helps me to pick and choose which items are most important in my mind—which events and people I have formed a personal relation with. One thing I did that helped me personally was to create a separate book of decades for US History. I kept that book “on the side” as we went through American History. Then I put the most keynote events and people in the century book, narrowing down my entries from the decade book.

    2) I took my dates from Christine Miller’s “All Through the Ages” timelines. Your starting date will depend on whether you believe in a young earth or an old earth. There are resources that give timeline estimates for each. Bottom line is that we don’t know the exact date (month/day/year) that God created the earth or that Adam and Eve fell into sin. So research, pray, ask your husband for counsel, and do the best you can to explain to your children that we don’t know the exact dates on many events in history, but that missing data doesn’t mean those events didn’t happen. It just means our knowledge is limited. I like your idea to dedicate one page to each of those key events.

    live2inspire
    Participant

    Dear Sonya,

    I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you are at a conference. I thank you very much for answering (I truly could have waited until after you were back home and settled in).

    I absolutely love your idea of a separate U.S. ‘Book of Decades’ (it makes so much sense!), and I appreciate your input on the starting dates for the BOC, too.

    You never disappoint, Sonya. You are certainly an instrument of God’s (as we all are in our own special way) and you have blessed so many with your time and talents. Thank you 😀 😀 😀 !!!

    Have a wonderful conference weekend!

    In Christ,

    Rebecca

    Esby
    Member

    I like the idea of US Book of Decades as well. Thanks for that spark of inspiration.

    Shanna
    Participant

    Sonya,

    I would never have thought to keep a US Decades Book. What an awesome idea, Sonya!!! THANK YOU!!!!

    live2inspire
    Participant

    Hello, Sonya.

    Just popping in to ask more questions about your wonderful idea on a Book of Decades (American History).  We finally have our BOC (World History) layed out and are ready to use it (how exciting!), but I want to work on our BOD now.  What year did you begin with?  I was thinking of having one page to illustrate/list events prior to the 1500’s (before the European settlements), since having a page for any decades prior to the 1500’s might be a waste (??).  Also, in our BOC, I tabbed each section (Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern) and would like to do the same with our BOD’s.  What would you recommend for our tabbed divisions?

    I am enjoying this process, although time consuming, and am thankful for such a wonderful tool for learning/retention/making connections.

    I’ve gained SO much from SCM and thank you for all the time and effort you (and the others, too) put into educating us on CM’s education.  I’ve recently gained alot on your steps to easing into CM.  I don’t feel so overwhelmed now…THANK YOU!

    In Christ,

    Rebecca  🙂

    ps:  Unless I missed it, maybe you should post a little more on your website regarding your BOD (I’m sure many would appreciate the idea), along with freebie templates as you have with the BOC.  Just a little wish of mine.  🙂

    Crystal Wagner
    Participant

    I was thinking of doing an Amer Hist book of decades as well.  But since my oldest is K (Little House on the Prairie this year) and 1st next year, I was going to do a larger scale so we can see the whole detail at one time.  I was thinking instead of a book or a posterboard, connecting file folder together so it would fold up.  Has anyone seen an example on-line of this.  I have some ideas rumbling around in my head, but not sure if it would really work well.

    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    I just grabbed my US History Book of Decades to see what I did, and we seem to be thinking along the same lines. Smile

    Looks like I put a two-page spread for the 1600s (17th century), then start doing the two-page decades from 1700 on to 2000.

    Tabbed divisions is an interesting idea. I’d love to hear suggestions from others.

    live2inspire
    Participant

    Thanks, Sonya.  I appreciate your help. I’ll be checking back to see if anyone has suggestions on the tabbed divisions.  My thoughts are:  Colonial, Revolution, Westward Expansion, Civil War, Recovery/Progressive, ….. not sure how to breakdown/label the rest. 

    God bless.  🙂

    Crystal Wagner
    Participant

    How about the breakdown in All Through the Ages.  If you go to their website and click on All Through the Ages you can download a sample of the Table of Contents to get an idea. 

    live2inspire
    Participant

    cjwagner77:  As a family, we are doing a “wall timeline” – off the wall.  hee!hee!  I first thought I was going to do the foamboard, but someone mentioned they take posterboards and cut it in half the long way.  You would then either punch holes on the sides and attach the boards together (with string, rings, plastic ties, whatever you wish) side by side, or use clothtape to attach them to one another to form a long line that folds very nicely.  I have chosen to take this route because it can be stored even easier than foamboard.  You can even change posterboard colors for the children to easily identify the era.  Good luck, and have fun – it’s a great project well worth the time!

    In really thinking this through, I’ve decided to tab divide by centuries in our American History BOD.  It’ll just make it easier for the student to navigate through.  Thanks for your input cjwagner77.  🙂

    God bless,  Rebecca

     

    missceegee
    Participant

    Exactly where did you all place your tabs for Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance & Modern in your BOC?

    live2inspire
    Participant

    We have our tabs placed as such:

    We started with a page of “Pre-History” (The Creation – Tower of Babel), then the first tab follows (Ancient = 3000 B.C – 5th century).  Medieval = 6th century – 15th century.  Renaissance = 16th & 17th centuries.  Modern = 18th century – present.

    Each era doesn’t necessarily begin at the start of the centuries I chose to place the tabs in, but rather began sometime within that century.

    Because I’ve forgotten much in regards to dates, I needed to make extensive comparisons with various homeschooling sites.  There were some differences in dates, but overall, these breaks seemed most appropriate(IMHO).

    Smile

    missceegee
    Participant

    Rebecca,

    Thank you for your response, these are what I had in my head after looking it up, but for some reason it all sounded wrong to me tonight.

    I appreciate your response.

    CG

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