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Book of Centuries – How does it work?
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I am familiar with timelines, but when I look at the Book of Centuries on SCM it looks like the pages are more conducive to making comments down the page. In some ways I like that better than a timeline. But how does that work when you study things and they aren’t necessarily in date order. You would get all the things that happened in that century shown together but the order wouldn’t necessarily be correct.
Great question. Each person’s Book of Centuries will be a reflection of his- or herself. I’m a list person, so my BofC is a collection of lists. Other people like to sketch or add art to their entries. In mine, I put dated events on the lefthand page. When I enter them, I try to space them out down the page about where they would belong — for example, something that happened in 1750 I’ll put in the middle of the page; something in 1705 I’ll put near the top of the page; etc. That way I have room to add other events according to date as we study them.
That’s one advantage to a Book of Centuries, I think. Because you have all that paper space, you can add events later and see how they connect with events that you’ve already studied and recorded. I think I’ve run up against a “no room for that entry by date” situation once or twice, but I just add the event over near the right margin of that page and it works just fine. Those are the exceptions, not the rule.
Then on the righthand page I like to list key characters who are connected with that century. I don’t personally put their (birthdate-deathdate) information beside their names, but you certainly could if you wanted to. On that righthand page, I also list any books we’ve read that are set in that time period. I put those titles in a different color of ink and way over near the right margin of the page.
The key is to make the Book of Centuries, or a timeline if you want to go that route, your servant and not your master. Use it however you want to in order to help you make those mental connections between people and events of the past.
I’m curious how others “do” their timeline books. Anybody else want to chime in?
Thanks. I really like the idea of putting events on one page and people on the other. I already have a preprinted Book of Centuries, but it only has one page per century. Maybe I can figure out how to use half of the page for each. Or perhaps I will just need to print out a two page, because I really, really like your ideas. It seems like it would be much less jumbled that way too. We started our timelines with the timeline figures, and I really don’t like that. So I am going to a list/text type this time around.
You could, or I just printed them all single page and used sheet protectors to collect the two that should be back-to-back throughout the book. I’m not sure I would recommend the sheet protectors very highly, though, come to think of it, because it’s a pain to pull out the page you want to write on and then stuff it back in. 🙂
Hidden Jewel…
Did you end up printing back to back? How is it working for you? Any suggestions?
I am hoping to print sometime this week. Would you recommend cardstock?
Thanks.
Mary
I just printed them back to back on card stock. We haven’t done a lot of work with them yet though. I would definitely suggest card stock so it will hold up over several years of use.
Hi all. Our family is new to homeschooling and to CM, and I have learned so much from everyone here. But I’ll post an intro later – I just wanted to say how wonderful it is to have a Book of Centuries. My daughter is 8 years old, so I make the entries, but we have been amazed to see our own studies and interests given context in relation to each other. This keeps us grounded in the vast world of history, which to me is kind of abstract.
I have used the Book of Centuries that I downloaded free here at SCM (thanks very much, by the way) and I just ran it off on regular paper. Actually I used colored paper, and it seems slightly heavier than the white copy paper that we use for common everyday. I think the file is set up to be printed on both sides, but I printed it so that it is ones sided, and so there are two sheets for each century. Then I made them face each other and punched with the 3-hole punch and put in a binder. So when you turn the page, there is a two page spread for each century, followed by a two page blank spread. I like to be able to look at it all laid out in front of me, and I imagine using the blank pages for overflow, scrapbooking, pasting pictures etc. We’ve been putting entries from the early part of the century on the left, and the late part of the century on the right. Also, where appropriate, I’ve inserted a half sheet (always yellow to distinguish it from the rest) into a century for notations related to our family history.
We make entries whenever we feel the need, and on Fridays, I try to review and see if there is anything we missed.
Anyway I think this is a great resource, and much better than a timeline for us.
Gem
My DD (age 10) keeps her BOC in a 3-ring binder. Each century has its own tab and a sheet of paper behind it. For the past few years, she simply wrote the dates on the page in whatever order we encountered them in our readings, and she wrote a very brief description (one sentence or a phrase). The dates have gotten a bit out of order on the pages, but you can still see the century at a glance, and it’s fascinating as we fill in more dates.
She is starting to be bothered by the dates out of order on the page, and I think she will do what Sonya does – by spacing out the dates and leaving room for future entries. Plus, I think she wants to update the pages and make them more “grown up.” We started when she was just learning to print, and she wants to get rid of the “baby” writing in her book. She is starting to see this has “her” book and has some design ideas of her own to incorporate. It’s an evolving process, which I guess makes the BOC a living book of her own creation. Very cool!
The BOC is one of the best learning tools I have encountered. I keep my own book, though I like to use drawing and diagrams and not just text, but anything works!
For those of you starting out, my DD was very reluctant to fill in information when she was younger. I didn’t push it, but did encourage her to put in the “important dates” in our studies. Now that she is older, she is tickled when she opens a page and sees something has already been written there. She’s very motivated to record history now. So hang in there if it seems slow-going in the beginning. It will pick up steam eventually.
Now I’m reminded that I need to start my younger child on his own BOC. He thinks it’s cool that he is the only person in our family born in this century! 🙂
I’m wondering if it would work to use a spiral notebook and just put a century on the top of each page? How many pages is the BOC? We travel alot and I wonder if a spiral notebook would be easier to take with us than a binder?
Also, each of my children have a beautiful timeline book from Through the Ages along with all the figures. But the kids don’t enjoy using it. They don’t even like coloring the figures anymore and just paste them on haphazardly. I was really hoping to use the timeline books as a way to review history. It’s just not working that way.
A few years ago, when we were using Mystery of HIstory, I had each of the children illustrate a scene from the history reading and add a sentence narration about it. They loved it. But with all the traveling that we do, it’s just sometimes easier to just read aloud and discuss. But I find that my children don’t seem to retain the information very well from our readings even with narration. So, I’m wondering if using a BOC would help?
Also, we’re are finishing up our study of Rome, I would be fighting such an urge to go back and fill in the ancient history dates.
I could use some suggestions! Many Thanks!
Betty
The SCM BoC would be great spiral bound. You could print it and take it an office supply and have them spiral bound it. I think I may just do that for mine.
Would there be a way to post some photos of people’s BoCs? It may be very helpful to those getting started and those needing some reinvigoration (is that a word?!). I always hesitate (for a moment :)) before I ask something that I know could cause Doug more work. Sorry, Doug.
We don’t have an easy way for you to post pictures here. I could add that feature but not having it has an advantage. It guarantees spammers won’t create an account and post offensive pictures. I always try to err on the side of protecting everyone. 🙂
You could post pictures somewhere else like Flickr and link them here, though. Or if you want to e-mail them to me I can post them here. You can e-mail me at doug@ (the name of this site) .com.
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