I’ve mentioned before my ridiculous enthusiasm for keeping up with a timeline to document our homeschool learning adventures. Well, imagine my excitement when we found ourselves in the midst of timeline activities in our Classical Conversations Challenge B and Challenge I classes this year! Boy howdy! I just love this sort of stuff! (Keeping a timeline really is one of my most favorite history activities – ranked right up there alongside reading living history books!)
In the research strand, Challenge B focuses on the history of astronomy during first semester. As my husband and I pieced together a timeline for his class, I was thrilled to find out that Homeschool in the Woods has a new Science, Invention, and Mathematicians Timeline set that includes all the scientists studied in Challenge B (plus a whole lot more!), along with a short description of the contributions made by that scientist/inventor/mathematician. From this timeline set, I was able to pull out the scientist figures used on our Challenge B timeline, including:
- Hippocrates
- Archimedes
- Ptolemy
- Copernicus
- Kepler
- Galileo
- Newton
- Banneker
- Mitchell
- Leavitt
- Einstein
We also extended the timeline a bit by adding Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, The Gallic Wars, and The Scopes Trial from the History through the Ages Timeline Figures set, which includes over 1300 timeline figures from ancient history through modern day. (Aristotle and “Inherit the Wind” are included in the Scientist set.)
The Challenge B class enjoyed the timeline excursion (because keeping up with a scientist timeline happened to be the one thing that had fallen by the wayside for all four students!).
At least one of the students did not realize that the numbers for the years before Christ (BC) increase as we go backward in time. Additional class discussion centered around the year 1AD (why isn’t there a year zero?), and the naming of centuries (e.g., the 20th century refers to the years 1901-2000).
Overall, it was not only a valuable lesson in sorting the scientists in chronological order to see how discoveries in astronomy have progressed, but it also became a valuable lesson in understanding history, dates, relationships, and timeline concepts in general.
In fact, I think they may have even enjoyed our little timeline activity as much as I did!
A Free Timeline Template!
Although timeline notebook pages are included in this Homeschool in the Woods timeline set, I found it was easier to use a shortened timeline for our {Challenge B} purposes. In case you’d like to do the same with your student, I created two options here for download: a set of regular timeline notebook pages, or an accordion-style timeline with guidelines for trimming the pages to tape together into a single folded piece. Click on the text below to download a copy!
Challenge B Timeline Notebook Pages
Challenge B Timeline Notebook Pages – Accordion
The Science, Invention, and Mathematicians Timeline set is available as a family license, a teacher’s license, or a school license. Definitely a good investment for a Challenge B class!
Challenge I Timeline
Things would certainly be amiss if I didn’t mention the timeline we worked on during Challenge I last week. Again, the students were not keeping up with a timeline, so we dedicated some class time to create a timeline of American documents….
The images I used for our son’s Challenge I timeline were taken from the History through the Ages Historical Timeline Figures. (The Homeschool in the Woods Complete Timeline Library is one of our most favorite history resources ever!)
Another Free Timeline Template!
If you’d like a vertical timeline for tracking American documents, you can download the templates we created below. Again, the options include regular notebook pages or a template that can be trimmed and taped together into one piece.
American Documents Timeline Notebook (Vertical Layout).
American Documents Accordion Timeline Notebook (Vertical Layout)
A tip for using accordion timelines: Before punching holes in the base page, run tape along the left edge of the paper to reinforce the paper there. Then, you won’t need to add page reinforcements to the punched holes!
Because a timeline notebook is also used in other Challenge levels – and because a timeline helps with documenting studies and understanding relationships between events – we’ve found it greatly beneficial to build a long-term timeline notebook for use throughout our children’s entire education, starting at the elementary level (Foundations) and adding to it throughout high school (Challenge). For doing so, you’d want an extended timeline – either one on the wall, or a timeline notebook template like those offered by Homeschool in the Woods (e.g., the Record of Time notebook), or you can download free timeline notebook templates here.