Home school time-lines....a hands on way to visualising history!

Hear the term "Time-line" and probably what comes to mind is a dreary line etched into an old school book, crammed full of dates and information.

Okay well, I need to wake you up and remind you.....as a homeschooler you do school but make it cool! (wink!)

Time lines do not have to be squeezed into a page from an exercise book.....they can be huge....really huge....ginormous....as big and as bold as you want them to be and fun!

I have discovered the world of time lines this week and I think they are awesome.....so long as you do not have a closed school mentality!

Before I continue, let us establish what is the point of a time line (just in case it is not already obvious!). It is fundamentally a "time map" showing key events within various or specified periods. It allows you to visually piece together key events across history from different cultures and civilisations, mapping out how they all piece together and in some instances even overlap!

You may want to produce a time-line of Islamic History starting with the beginning of creation right through to present day, and perhaps another on world History - or even mapping it all out on one time-line together to easily compare key events across different civilisations during the same time periods!
Perhaps you'd like to take a look at the Seerah in detail, so could use a time-line to map out the life of the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم

I've been learning about Time lines over the past couple of days, and have found there are a few ways of putting one together, from binding in a folder to spreading it out all over the width of a wall!

I like my house to look like a house not a school everywhere you look so I don't want things all over every wall other than in our dedicated "school space" which is always full!

The most awesome method I have seen, is to make an accordion style book, which allows you to open out its pages should you desire, or flick through as a compact book!
This makes it easy to store away, and just pull out when needed!

The great thing about time-lines is that you can go backwards and forwards through the years, adding key events throughout different times as you study or come across them - you don't have to study everything "in order" from the beginning.
So for example, lets say you are doing a time-line of Islamic history, you may do a study about the early companions, and so map out key figures and events back in the early years before Hijrah, and then you may learn something more contemporary such as the recent Scholars during the last decade - so you can skip ahead and put those in, then you might go back to add one of the great battles! In this way you can continue to add information and dates going back and forth throughout all ages, allowing a visual representation of history to be captured right in front of you!

You may never finish a time-line, as you continue to add more events and dates, adding more paper and centuries as you go! Its a great hands-on way to help make history real!

You don't have to do a time line covering a huge time span, but instead specify a particular era, such as the Tudor times, or perhaps take a look at the development of something such as inventions over a century!

I don't have any images of completed timelines to show you (not "blogger professional" I know!), because we haven't done any yet. But I'd suggest taking a look online at various blogs and pinterest to get the idea.
What actually brought time lines to my attention and how cool you can make them was a youtube video by some American (Christian) home educators. I listened to it as I cleaned my kitchen and cooked dinner!
Its not a Muslim discussion so bare in mind there are things which they discuss which are of no relevance to us as Muslim home educators, however their conversation regarding the essence of how and why a time line can be produced is useful. If you are interested, the link for the video is here.