For my DD7, I purchased an Add-A Century Timeline. It is great, but it took A LOT of time to set up, and it has ended up taking quite a bit of time to find my own images, resize them, etc.
My DS 5 has been asking when he is going to get his own timeline. On one hand, getting another AddACentury timeline would be simpler in the sense that both kids would be using the same thing. On the other hand, I am stretched quite thin now and I don’t know how/when I’ll have time to put it together and continue sourcing my own images.
I have heard about and looked (online) the Homeschool in the Woods (Amy Pak) timeline products. I am wondering - how user friendly is this timeline? I think I would buy the binder with the blank sheets + the CD ROM with images. Is there anything more I would need to do other than print the images and have the kids glue them into their binders? I was thinking I would just print all the images for the time period we are studying each quarter and have them ready to go in a separate folder.
I really like the idea of a timeline to give the kids a big picture view of how events relate to each other. The AddACentury was a big investment, but It isn’t working out for us. I’d appreciate any feedback on the Homeschool In the Woods timeline before I sink big $$ on it.
I haven’t used any of the time lines you can buy… they look nice and fancy, but they cost a lot of money, and look like they are time consuming. So with that said, I have little advice I can give you. However, a while back someone asked about time lines. Many people responded with their own methods. Here’s what I do for my kids:
I took a spiral notebook and wrote a time frame at the top of each page (for example: 1700-1799, 1800-1899, etc). I precut a mound of different colored paper strips a few inches shorter than the height of the notebook paper. When we come to a date in our studies - 1776 for example - we get a paper strip - write the date/year on the strip as well as what was important - “1776 - Declaration of Independence.” Then we locate the page with the correct date range - 1700 - 1799 - then we find the approximate spot on our time line to tape/hang that paper strip. Taping allows us to move the strips around if necessary as we add new events. Because the paper strips are not wide, the writing is sideways when we hang the strip, but that is no problem. Hope that makes sense… I can always send you a picture. Anyway - it’s been a money saver and a space saver. I don’t believe my kids get it any less than they would if we had it hanging across the wall. Works for us
