I got the idea of Laurie Bestvater's, The Living Page, which I highly recommend. It's based off of what she calls the "Table of History" but that is described by her and Charlotte Mason as being for Form I, maybe early Form 2, so - elementary age. I guess I should be beyond it by now but I'm not. History really isn't my forte and I've always struggled with dates so I wanted some sort of timeline to help me but nothing big or elaborate. And this isn't. It's not exactly how she described hers but since I'm not in Form I, I felt like I could take some liberties.
The early side (1400 BC to 500 AD)
My photos are pretty awful but this post has been sitting here a week because every night I wanted to wait and take pictures with better lighting and that never happened. So it's shadowy and flashy but even in good lighting, I don't think this would make a good image anyway.
Close up of the my busiest section from the late side
It's just a single piece of paper, divided into centuries, front. If I had any legal sized paper I probably would have been able to fit it on just one side but I made do with a smaller sheet using the front and back and it works just fine. When I come across person or event I want to remember, I just add it to the correct century. I don't worry about the exact dates. Oftentimes a person is born in one century but dies in another, I pick the one that makes the most sense to me, it doesn't really matter. I just want a column of names/events in each century. I've been calling it a timelist because that name makes sense to me and I kept forgetting the official term "Table of History."
Now that I've been using it for a while, I sometimes wish I had made horizontal sections like king/rules and books so I could see the span over time. But I also realize that the beauty of this really is it's simplicity. I don't have enough on there that it would be a pain to redo but I'm not going to. It's working so why mess with that?
It's been about two months since I started it but I don't foresee my giving it up, even if I do get the aforementioned Book of Centuries. Because the things I include in the BOC will be specially selected while this can be filled with anything and everything I stumbled upon, and I've pretty liberal with my inclusions. I've finding that having one makes my ears perk up when I hear (or more likely, read) a name or event that intrigues me. I keep it tucked into my commonplace book so its easy to find and add to. Queen Victoria is listed because I'm reading Idylls of the King and the dedication was to Prince Albert. I ended up reading all about the two of them one evening. I also through Queen Nefertiri when we looked her up after a Doctor Who episode and then last week during tea time, we looked at the N is for Noses page of Museum ABC and one of the pictures was of Queen Nefertiti! Connections - I love them!
If you are another time challenged person, I'd suggest giving it a try.
And remember, head over to Joyous Lesson for the Keeping Company Link-up.
My kids have been keeping something similar since Year 1 and I find it's organized enough to be useful but simple enough that my kids can do it themselves and doesn't feel like busywork. ;) Thank you for sharing!
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