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April 19, 2006 - by Terri Johnson, author of Homeschooling ABCs (www.homeschoolingabcs.com ) - dedicated to helping new homeschoolers gain the confidence and the necessary skills to successfully teach their children at home.
  
How to Make a Timeline Easily
  
I receive many questions from new and veteran home educators over the course of a year. In the past two months, however, there has been one question that has surfaced more than any other and that is… “How do we make a timeline?” This is a great question and armed with knowledge and the right tools, it is not as hard as it might seem.

Once you have decided that your students would gain tremendous benefit from seeing the progression of history in the form of a timeline, the first obstacle that crops up is, “How do we start?” Some of the questions that arise when constructing a timeline are from not knowing what the date increments should be, how far apart they should be spaced, what format should be used and what exactly should go on it.

FORMAT

We will tackle each one of these questions, but let’s start with the third one about format. A timeline can be constructed in a variety of formats, but there are three major categories - wall timeline, book timeline and computer timeline. Each one is fairly self-explanatory, but for the sake of clarity, let’s define each one. A wall timeline would be attached to or hung upon the wall. When no longer in use, it may be taken down and stored by folding like an accordion or rolling it up. A wall timeline can either be a finished product for reference purposes only, a pre-printed banner with date increments only, or entirely homemade. As interesting as a reference timeline can be for adults, it is not the educational tool that the latter two options provide.

A book timeline as well can be a finished product, such as the Wall Chart of World History. This is a fabulous book and a great reference for adults or teens. Again, it is not the ideal educational tool for students in 4th through 12th grade, because students in this age bracket need a tangible activity to cement their learning. (As an aside, timelines do not have significant meaning for students 3rd grade and under. At this age, they are still grasping the concept of time.) The other options for book timelines would be a pre-printed hardcover book with date increments only, a binder with printed timeline sheets, or a homemade timeline book assembled in a notebook, scrapbook or sketch book.

A computer timeline requires software, which can be anything from the most basic of applications such as Microsoft Word or Excel (or similar word processing and spreadsheet applications) to a program that has been developed specifically for the purpose of creating historical timelines on the computer. Two such programs are the Easy Timeline Creator and TimeLiner 5.0. Both of these programs have been developed for students to make timeline creation at the computer desktop a snap.

SPACING

Once a format has been decided upon, the time period and date increments need to be mapped out. Decide if your timeline will cover the span of recorded history (generally from early civilizations around 5000BC to the present) or just a segment of history (for example: World War II - 1939-1945). This next part is subjective, but you will need to decide how much space you would like to allot to your timeline. You may be limited by wall space and this factor might play into your decision about which format to use as well. If you are working with a book format or on the computer, space is not particularly an issue. One rule of thumb, however, is to give yourself more space the more recent the history being studied. For example, a page per one or two hundred years is sufficient for Ancient history, (in fact using this amount will result in many blank pages towards the beginning) but you will need at least a page per decade for the 20th century. Perhaps even more.

Below are some guidelines to get started. As much as possible, determine to keep date increment spacing consistent on your planned timeline project. If you are using a wall timeline, consider choosing a time period rather than the whole span of recorded history. You can change out timelines when you have filled up the first one. This is not a bad idea for your book or computer timeline either, as it breaks the project down into a manageable sized chunk. This can be a very helpful plan for children, especially those that are easily overwhelmed by large projects.

For the wall: 

Note: Before you begin to mark the date increments on your homemade wall timeline, draw a straight line horizontally along its length. Use butcher paper, computer printout paper or the unprinted ends of a newspaper roll (ask for this at your local paper - it is either free or cheap). Also note that Knowledge Quest sells wall timelines with the date increments pre-marked. Click here for details.

For a book: