Like a grizzled fisherman casting his line into the water, my mind pulls up a dusty memory of a thick manila-covered book from Sonlight.Ī dark line runs horizontally across the inside pages while evenly spaced vertical lines mark the years. “A Book of Centuries is just a Charlotte Mason timeline book.”
Not just a Charlotte Mason timeline, learn exactly what a Book of Centuries is, how to make one, and how to use one.
Please let me know if you find these notebook printables useful.Īnd if you like it, pin it to share with your friends!įree Fractions, Decimals, and Percents Mini Officeĭon’t miss a free printable from Homeschooling Hearts & Minds.How to Make an Authentic Book of Centuries (includes free printable) If you are using The Well-Trained Mind as a homeschool guide, they do recommend equally distributing time along the timeline (with a smaller space for approximately 13,000 BC to 5,000 BC to allow for space considerations). Others would say that less is known about that time period (we are simply inundated with information as we get closer and closer to our own time period) and the timeline will also emphasize this. Some would say that “less” was happening back then and a relatively empty timeline will emphasize that. The first 500 years was just as long as the most recent 500 years, so it would be visually misleading to give it less “time” on the timeline. Now, maybe you are wondering…why use the same amount of space per 500 years for the end of the timeline when so much is happening as I used for the beginning of the timeline when there’s not so much to record? Pop it into your child’s history binder-maybe he’d like to decorate the “cover”?Īnd you’re done! You can also use this as a wall timeline (the overall length would be approximately 7-1/2 feet). Taking two consecutive pages at a time, turn them over to the wrong side, butt them together at their adjoining long edge and tape with clear packing tape.Ħ. Trim off both the right and left margins from the remaining pages (warning, don’t get your pages all mixed up!).Ĥ. The left margin will be an extension where you’ll punch your holes.ģ. Trim off the right margin from the first page (13,000 BC to 5,000 BC) using a straight trimmer-this is the area beyond the end of the bold line in the middle. The pages came out perfectly flat and were easy to line up.Ģ. Note: my laser printer will curl cardstock if I print single-sided (making it really hard to line things up), so I chose to print these on my inkjet.
I allowed my son to choose which one he preferred, the photo instructions for assembly are therefore of “bottom lines” version. There are 3 different versions: with lines, bottom lines, and no lines. It ends at 500 AD, but it’s pretty likely I’ll finish it to modern times when we get there.
The remaining pages each cover a period of 500 years.
The first sheet covers from 13,000 BC to 5000 BC (since we don’t have much in the way of dates to fill in for the times prior to written history). It will require 12 sheets of paper or cardstock (I used cardstock). This timeline is in portrait format and designed to “fan-fold” to fit neatly into a binder. Nothing I could find seem to quite be what I was looking for, so I decided to create it myself. We’re studying ancient world history this year and I wanted my oldest son to have a personal timeline he could keep in his history notebook.